12 trippy, time-bending films that feel like Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko, released in 2001, has grown from a modest sleeper hit into a cultural touchstone for fans of surreal, time-bending, psychological thrillers. At its core, the film fuses suburban ennui with jaw-dropping time-travel hijinks and the utterly unsettling presence of Frank—the giant, demonic-looking rabbit that still gives viewers chills.

Since then, die-hard fans have packed midnight screenings and snapped up every DVD release, dissecting its dense symbolism and looping timelines as though they were encrypted cheat codes. If you’re scouting for equally trippy, time-bending flicks that hit the same sweet spot as Donnie Darko, you’ve landed on exactly the right guide.

We’ll kick things off by unpacking what makes Donnie Darko such an enduring enigma, then barrel through a dozen films guaranteed to warp your brain in the best possible way!

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What makes Donnie Darko a trippy, time-bending film?

Richard Kelly’s debut centers on Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), an angst-ridden teenager in 1988 who survives a jet engine crash by following visions of a prophetic rabbit named Frank. As Donnie begins sleepwalking, he uncovers clues about a looming apocalypse, intertwined with concepts of tangent universes and manipulated deadlines.

The film marries 1980s nostalgia (complete with Duran Duran and Don Henley) with metaphysical questions about fate, free will, and the nature of time. Kelly’s nonlinear storytelling keeps viewers off-balance, dropping cryptic symbols like the “Philosophy of Time Travel” book and cryptic countdowns to a 28-day catastrophe.

Cinematographer Steven Poster bathes each frame in muted blues, underscoring the film’s dreamlike quality and its slow descent into apocalyptic dread. Audience interpretations range from astrophysical theories about wormholes to psychoanalytic readings of adolescent trauma, making every rewatch a fresh puzzle.

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12 trippy, time-bending films that feel like Donnie Darko

1. Coherence (2013)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

Picture a cozy dinner party that suddenly unravels once a comet flies overhead—friends start bumping into alternate versions of themselves, and reality splinters in real time. James Ward Byrkit’s debut leans on improvisation and tight framing to crank up the paranoia, proving you don’t need a blockbuster budget to bend your mind.

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2. Black Swan (2010)

Where to watch: JioHotstar

Darren Aronofsky’s ballet-set thriller follows Natalie Portman as a perfection-obsessed dancer losing grip on what’s performance and what’s real. The film’s ascent into horror is as graceful as Swan Lake itself, with haunting mirror imagery that feels straight out of a waking nightmare.

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3. Triangle (2009)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

What starts as a laid-back yachting trip quickly veers into a looping nightmare when Melissa George and her crew stumble onto an abandoned ocean liner. With its dose of Groundhog Day-style repetition and one jaw-dropping twist after another, Triangle traps you in a puzzle box at sea.

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4. Memento (2000)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

Christopher Nolan’s breakout plays its cards in reverse—Guy Pearce’s amnesiac hero tattoos clues on his own body to hunt a killer, but every scene peels away another layer of uncertainty. Disorientation is transformed into pure cinematic adrenaline in this masterpiece of fragmented narrative.

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5. The Butterfly Effect (2004)

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon Prime Video

Ashton Kutcher stars as a guy who discovers he can leap back into childhood memories… with disastrous ripple effects on the present. This high-concept thriller leans into cause-and-effect chaos, exploring how even tiny changes can spiral into apocalyptic consequences.

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6. Under the Silver Lake (2018)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

Andrew Garfield plays an L.A. dropout who deciphers cryptic messages hidden in pop-culture ephemera, leading him down a rabbit hole of secret societies and midnight conspiracies. David Robert Mitchell’s neo-noir wraps LA’s sun-soaked streets in a blanket of surreal dread.

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7. Southland Tales (2006)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

Richard Kelly’s own follow-up to Donnie Darko collapses into a satirical sci-fi romp set in a dystopian 2008 L.A. Here, political farce and mind-bending sci-fi collide amid gas shortages, celebrity culture, and prophetic pop stars.

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8. Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

Tim Robbins anchors this hallucinatory trip as a Vietnam vet stalked by nightmarish visions. Adrian Lyne’s film blurs the boundary between PTSD flashbacks and supernatural torment, creating a body horror atmosphere that gnaws at your sense of self.

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9. Lost Highway (1997)

Where to watch: MUBI

A musician (Bill Pullman) receives inexplicable videotapes of his life, is charged with murder, and then mysteriously assumes another identity. In typical David Lynch fashion, time loops, identities change, and reality breaks down in this hallucinogenic noir.

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10. Perfect Blue (1997)

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon Prime Video

The anime classic by Satoshi Kon follows a pop star who gives up music to pursue acting, only to be plagued by her own reflection in the mirror and chased by an ardent admirer. The line between personality and performance is blurred in this incisive psychological thriller.

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11. I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

Where to watch: Netflix

Jane Schoenbrun’s surreal horror-drama follows a teenager who becomes obsessed with a cult ’90s TV show, blurring the lines between broadcast fiction and waking life. With its Pointillist visuals and mood of adolescent alienation, it feels like an echo of Donnie Darko’s suburban nightmares.

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12. Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon Prime Video

Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director building a life-size replica of New York in a warehouse. As art and reality fold into each other, time stretches and contracts, leaving you marveling at how far a single idea can spiral.

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Donnie Darko remains a benchmark for films that dare to fracture time and reality in service of deeper truths about identity, fate, and the human psyche. From low-budget indies to sprawling studio efforts, the twelve movies above each capture a slice of that trippy, mind-bending ethos, whether through nested timelines, warped perceptions, or existential dread.

If you’ve already revisited Donnie Darko’s suburban nightmares and prophetic rabbit appearances, these films will extend the journey, plunging you into mirrored worlds, psychological mazes, and haunting what-ifs. So dim the lights, extinguish your safe assumptions about narrative, and let these movies bend your sense of time just as Donnie Darko once did. Happy watching!