Table of contentsTheme and motifs in contrast to the characters in the filmWhen the subconscious takes control of consciousnessConclusionWorks CitedRichard Kelly's 2001 drama/fantasy film entitled Donnie Darko involves realism with the story revolving around the main character, Donnie, who lives in the suburbs of Middlesex, Virginia. During the 1988 presidential elections, during an evening, Donnie, sleepwalking, meets an enormous demonic rabbit who tells him that the end of the world will be in “28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds”. When Donnie wakes up on a golf course and finally returns home the next morning, he discovers that a jet engine has crashed in his bedroom. Throughout the film, the director uses mise-en-scène to help define characters such as Donnie and, furthermore, uses cinematography to draw the audience towards him. In the film entitled Donnie Darko, the character and the atmosphere are both revealed through the use of sound and editing which go hand in hand thanks to the sequence of shots and scenes and thus draw the audience into the world of characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Two scenes from the first half of the film provide an exceptional example of how the film's theme and motifs relate to the contrast between the protagonist, Donnie, and the antagonist, Frank. These scenes are juxtaposed and therefore emphasize a parallel. These two scenes create a mood of emotions such as panic and goosebumps and, in this, complement each other to create a demonstration of struggle to get rid of them. Theme and motifs contrasting with the film's characters In the second scene of the film, where the demonic rabbit, Frank tells Donnie to "wake up". The scene begins with a ghostly but ominous voice encouraging Donnie to wake up, get out of bed and follow the voice; the sounds of this voice completely suggest that Frank is an entity from another world, perhaps from another realm of the universe. Frank's voice that Donnie hears is subjective, as he is the only one who can hear this entity's voice. In the first shot of this scene, there is very minimal, almost black lighting, giving the effect that Donnie is barely visible, making him appear menacing as he sleepwalks out of his room and follows the voice by Frank. The sound and music choices in the background of this scene are non-diegetic, intimidating but annoying at the same time, the climax then created more tension and left the viewer not knowing at all what was going to happen as well as a feeling of apprehension. When the audience first sees Frank, he is essentially a life-sized rabbit with a demonic appearance. His purpose as a "manipulated death" is to guide Donnie in his attempt to correct the timeline of the "primary universe" by restoring the jet engine to its original universe. Although Frank has honorable goals, he corrupts and torments Donnie by telling him to commit crimes to save the universe; he forces Donnie to commit crimes such as an arson at Jim Cunningham's home during his sister's dance group's performance at his school's talent show. When Donnie and Frank first see each other, the camera transitions between the two characters using the fade-in technique; the camera foreshadows that Donnie and Frank will have a deep connection, it's as if Frank is a part of Donnie and his soul. The recurring theme and motifs of the supernatural continue and make the audience believe in the inhuman qualities possessed by the demonic being of therabbit. Both Donnie and Frank represent imagery of Donnie's mental instability, as he is schizophrenic, takes medication, and frequently attends therapy; Frank is a metaphor for Donnie's specialness. When Frank tells Donnie when the world will end, the close-up frame shows Donnie smiling, showing amusement that the world is going to end rather than the shock and fear that someone else would have. He sleepwalks while Frank reveals that the world is going to end, but this reaction seems genuine and abnormal, as he is in an unstable mind. After Donnie and Frank's interaction, the jet engine suddenly crashes into Donnie's room, causing the house to shake and scaring the Darko family, this may be considered a "scare" to some, as this event occurs from nowhere. The way the event is portrayed makes the audience pessimistic, thinking that the worst of the worst has happened. The slow motion shots in this scene emphasize the destruction and horror caused by the plane's engine. We can see this when Donnie's father runs to check if his family is safe and unharmed; time seems to slow down, because the unthinkable could have happened. The sound of the jet engine crashing into Donnie's room and the house shaking it causes is the exact same noise heard during the opening scene of the film. This indicates to the audience that the events of the film do not follow any particular order, establishing the idea of ​​time travel, representing the parallel world that Donnie finds himself in as he becomes increasingly unstable and increasingly dependent on Frank. This is the first time a viewer realizes that Frank is not a figment of his imagination, he is in fact real. He basically stopped Donnie's death from happening and Donnie begins to build trust in him, as he isn't necessarily one hundred percent evil despite his unsettling introduction and his life-sized, ominous bunny costume. The camerawork of the disappearance may be symbolism of the inevitable end of life, the heavy breathing of Donnie's sister is the only audible sound that is heard by the audience in the endless darkness that results from the chaos around the Darko family home. Once the chaos is over, the darkness only lingers for a second, suggesting death, which happens to some characters later, near the end of the film. When the Subconscious Takes Control of Consciousness Something people take for granted in life is the minds they possess, people forget how different each individual is from each other. A psychological diagnosis would describe Donnie as incredibly intelligent as well as a paranoid schizophrenic, a disorder in which one has perplexed and disconnected thoughts, emotions, and overall perception of life. There are quite a few scenes in the film that support Donnie's diagnosis, such as him being able to see Frank and see the world's wormholes which are seen in the sky later in the film. Donnie claims he can see other people's paths; When he and his sister threw a party at their house, he began to see these transparent paths that traced people's movements through time, which he saw as an aspect of time travel. Donnie only shows his aggressive side when Frank manipulates him into committing crimes, such as an arson attack on the home of a motivational speaker named Jim Cunningham. The audience sees Donnie's dislike of Cunningham and his philosophies on values ​​and the meaning of life. Frank also had Donnie vandalize his school by breaking a water pipe causing the school to flood, throwing the ax into their school mascot and., 29(3), 365-379.