It’s a pretty bizarre flick when the most stable character is a six-foot-tall freaky rabbit that puts criminal thoughts into the head of a teenager. The story follows a strange series of events in the life of Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), a psychologically distressed boy dealing with authority issues at home and at school, love, and twisted parallel universes.
Twisted, dark and surprisingly engrossing, “Donnie Darko” is no date movie but an adult tale about teenage angst in the extreme. (113 min.)

Rated R - 2002

Director:
Richard Kelly

Starring:
Jake Gyllenhaal
Holmes Osborne
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Mary McDonnell
Drew Barrymore
Patrick Swayze
Katherine Ross
Noah Wyle
Daveigh Chase
Jolene Purdy
Patience Cleveland

Writer:
Richard Kelly

Never pick up hitchhikers. Al Roberts (Tom Neal) learns this lesson the hard way. Waving his thumb, Al hits the road from New York to California to reunite with his girlfriend. He thinks he’s in the home stretch when he gets picked up by a guy named Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald) who says he’s going all the way to L.A. Haskell promptly drops dead. Because he fears the police would never believe his ride died of natural causes, Al dumps the body and steals the car. Just to prove he’s a good guy, Al picks up a hitch-hiking dame named Vera, spelled with a “V” as in vicious. Vera (Ann Savage) worms the story out of poor Al and sets about blackmailing him. This little film noir earns its cult classic status with some really high quality photography for a low-budget film — and one of the cruelest femme fatales in movie history. (67 min.)

Unrated - 1945

Starring:
Tom Neal
Ann Savage
Claudia Drake
Edmund MacDonald

Director:
Edgar G. Ulmer

Writers:
Martin Goldsmith (screenplay and original story)

Unrated - 1945

Starring:
Tom Neal
Ann Savage
Claudia Drake
Edmund MacDonald

Director:
Edgar G. Ulmer

Writers:
Martin Goldsmith (screenplay and original story)

Of course the best way to see this late-night movie palace mainstay from the 1970s is in a theater crowded with costumed fans throwing rice and shouting retorts to the on-screen dialogue. (Example: “We meet at last,” says Frank. “No, we meet at first,” says the audience). However, the cult classic still holds up well even if the viewer is alone in a dark house in the middle of the night illumined only by the flicker of the “light over at the Frankenstein place.”
In “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) stumble into a spooky old house after their car breaks down. Their host Frank (Tim Curry), that sweet transvestite from outer space, is throwing a party to celebrate bringing his new creature to life. However, Rocky, his lab-created specimen, is no monster with bolts in his neck, but rather a muscle man with a bulge in his Speedo. Frank relieves Brad (A**hole) and Janet (Sl*t) of their clothes and their virtue and gets perturbed when Janet casts her eyes — and her bosoms — toward Rocky. Frank isn’t the only one who’s ticked off, as his jealous alien servants stage a coup and dispatch Frank to another world. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is a deliciously campy sci-fi spoof and perversely entertaining romp punctuated with catchy musical numbers. Should a man look so sexy in women’s lingerie? Can a movie possibly have all this and a floor show, too? You bet your fishnet stockings it can. (100 min.)

Rated R - 1975

Director:
Jim Sharman

Starring:
Tim Curry
Susan Sarandon
Barry Bostwick
Richard O’Brien
Patricia Quinn
Little Nell
Peter Hinwood
Jonathan Adama
Meat Loat
Charles Gray

Writers:
Richard O’Brien (original musical play, screenplay)
Jim Sharman (screenplay)

Rated R - 1975

Director:
Jim Sharman

Starring:
Tim Curry
Susan Sarandon
Barry Bostwick
Richard O’Brien
Patricia Quinn
Little Nell
Peter Hinwood
Jonathan Adams
Meat Loat
Charles Gray

Writers:
Richard O’Brien (original musical play, screenplay)
Jim Sharman (screenplay)