Legacy

Donnie Darko website

"Wake up, Donnie. I've been watching you. Come closer. Closer!"

Legacy

"Wake up, Donnie. I've been watching you. Come closer. Closer!"

"28 days 6 hours 48 minutes 12 seconds. That is when the world will end. Pay close attention, you could miss something."

The site was created for the Film Donnie Darko by first-time director Richard Kelly. The film plays over a 28 day period in a tangent (parallel universe) between 2 October and 30 October 1988.
The site was launched in numerous phases from early October.
The final phase was launched on 26 October 2001, which was the release date of the film in the US.

What attracted us to Donnie Darko, was its narrative structure and the possibilities it offered for an online expansion. While the film plays over a period of 28 days, the site becomes the narrative's prologue and epilogue and reflects the film's puzzle-like structure in the way it is constructed and left open-ended...

Donnie Darko website reel

Behind the scenes

We had created 3 phased and then run out of time and therefore left the site open ended. People discussed in forums that there were still level 4.5.6 and 7 to be discovered on the site.
The narrative of donniedarko.com has created its own legend.
We produced a lot of satellite sites to enhance the online experience - which has become one of our trademarks. So we faked malfunction and received emails to the "Webmaster" which we then answered as characters from the film…

Credits.

Created in 2001 at Hi-ReS! Alexandra Jugović & Florian Schmitt, in collaboration with Richard Kelly for Newmarket Films.

Reanimated in 2026 as part of Yūgen Lab.

The site runs again from the original Flash files, kept exactly as it was. Three levels, still open-ended. Best experienced on a desktop, in Chrome, as entry requires a keyboard.

Enter the site →

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