Editorials
‘Donnie Darko’: A Critique of Conservatism and Book Bans in Schools
Let’s be honest with ourselves. On your first watch, second, fifteenth, did you ever figure out what the cult classic Donnie Darko is about? I will confess. I had absolutely no idea what Donnie Darko was about. And I still don’t. Not quite.
A Poignant Look at the Current School Systems
But the film’s warnings of pervasive and predatory conservatism facilitate important conversations surrounding censorship in the American post-Trump era, and illuminate just how out of touch the powers that be are with the needs of the younger generations. The central antagonist of Donnie Darko is not the giant bunny, not the bullies, but the conservative parent/gym teacher Kitty Farmer, whose lack of understanding of Middlesex’s youth causes extreme tension in the town. Farmer’s call for a book ban of Graham Greene’s “The Destructors,” given as a reading assignment by Miss Karen Pomeroy. Her reasons behind the ban enlighten us to what is currently happening in schools across the United States, especially in the South. The film’s post-Reagan political climate further enriches the comparisons to today’s post-Trump world, and politics is no doubt an ominous specter throughout the film.
Political Tensions in Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko is set in Middlesex, Virginia, in 1988. It is October, and the 1988 election is near. The film’s first piece of dialogue comes from Donnie’s sister Elizabeth at the family dinner table. “I’m voting for Dukakis,” she confesses to her parents. Mr. Darko pauses mid-bite, shocked. “Hmm, well. Maybe when you have children of your own who need braces, and you can’t afford them because half of your husband’s paycheck goes to the federal government, who umm…” “—my husband’s paycheck?” she interrupts. Mrs. Darko affirms her daughter with a giggle. However, she soon chides in, asking Elizabeth if she really thinks Dukakis, the Democratic nominee, will “provide for this country” until she’s ready to have children.
By now, we have learned that Elizabeth is eagerly awaiting an acceptance from Harvard University. This first scene sets the film’s political tone: conservative values reign and are in direct opposition to a bright young generation. Donnie Darko showcases the generation gap between the Baby Boomers and Generation X. Considering our political climate after just having an ultra-conservative showman president just as Donnie Darko is set amidst the race to succeed Ronald Reagan. The film is a window into the effects of the Moral Majority/GOP on schools, teachers, parents, and children. And sadly, the results are what you’d expect: conservative opposition to intellectualism/higher education, and an over-policing of children and teens. Sound familiar?
At Middlesex High School, English teacher Miss Karen Pomeroy introduced her students to the story “The Destructors.” This is a tale of a gang of child ruffians in the ruins of London in World War II after The Blitz. Together, they flood and dismantle the house of ‘Old Misery,’ a man whose house, unlike his neighbors’, survived The Blitz completely. The story includes a moment when the leader, T, finds bundles of cash in Old Misery’s mattress and instead of stealing it, he lights it aflame. When Miss Pomeroy asks what this scene in the story means, Donnie explains, “They just wanna see what happens when they tear the world apart. They want to change things.”
Kitty Farmer’s Crusade Against Literature
“The PTA doesn’t ban books.”
Unfortunately, the assignment from Miss Pomeroy was also given to Beth Farmer, Kitty Farmer’s daughter. An enraged Mrs. Farmer disrupts an Emergency PTA meeting to advocate for a school book ban. “I want to know why this smut is being taught to our children!” The PTA was on the topic of recent school vandalism, which included a flooding of the school (Frank, Donnie’s imaginary friend, instructed Donnie to do this). She cites that the child gang in “The Destructors” used flooding in their mission for destruction, which is what happened to the school earlier that month. Farmer receives scattered cheers from the parents present, but not from Rose Darko. “What is the real issue here?” she asks Kitty. “The PTA doesn’t ban books.”
Farmer continues, “The PTA is here to acknowledge that pornography is being taught in our curriculum!”
The Mislabeling of Literature as “Pornography”
According to Pen America, a literature and human rights organization, it is quite common for books to be labeled “pornographic” or “indecent.” However, as in Greene’s story, it is often the case that the books being accused of sexual content contain nothing of the sort.
[T]his framing has become an increasing focus of activists and politicians to justify removing books that do not remotely fit the well-established legal and colloquial definitions of “pornography.” Rhetoric about ‘porn in schools’ has also been advanced as justification for the passage or introduction of new state laws, some of which would bar any books with sexual content and could easily sweep up a wide swath of literature and health-related content.
Conspiracies and Hypocrisy in Donnie Darko
When Karen Pomeroy explains that the story is ironic, Kitty hurls with vitriol, “[Y]ou need to go back to grad school.” Kitty prefers her limited understanding to an intellectual conversation about the literature. Just as it is happening today, conscientious and knowledgeable teachers are being policed and scrutinized for routine classroom decisions on curriculum, while those who critique their actions follow abusive demigods with no question of their morals. It is later revealed that Kitty Farmer’s idol, motivational speaker Jim Cunningham, is a serial child predator who she introduced to children and adults in Middlesex. Kitty misses her daughter’s big break in Hollywood to be at his side for the trial. “It’s obviously some kind of conspiracy to destroy an innocent man!”
Though Farmer had no problem destroying Miss Pomeroy’s career. Within a few weeks of introducing Greene’s story to her class, Miss Pomeroy is fired after Farmer’s complaints with support from the school principal. She tells him, “I don’t think that you have a clue what it’s like to communicate with these kids. And we are losing them to apathy… to this prescribed nonsense.” Similarly, an Oklahoma teacher in 2022 was fired for providing students with access to banned books. Folks like Kitty Farmer, of which there are many, want to “protect children” by banning controversial literature while they are the real predators.
Donnie Darko and the Myth of Literary Influence
To Kitty’s point, could Donnie have been directly inspired by “The Destructors,” causing chaos in Middlesex? The answer is no. Donnie Darko deals with fate, and Donnie was always on this path, as posited by the film’s central premise of time travel. In this sense, the film can be a vehicle to analyze conservative hysteria toward literature — children will always find a way to rebel, and perhaps in defiance, be inspired by the actions of conservatives to call for an end to book bans and censorship in schools.
Donnie was certainly inspired by his distaste for hypocritical and conservative school leadership. Even though his actions, or at least what his imaginary friend Frank told him to do, mirror those in the story, “The Destructors” did not dictate his behavior. Even further, the gang of boys did not kill anyone, unlike Donnie. He tells Gretchen early in the film that he had burned down an abandoned house once before, prior to his introduction to Greene’s story. Destruction/creation is Donnie’s destiny.
Honoring Teachers Like Miss Pomeroy
I and many others have had our own Miss Pomeroys, the bright English teachers who, despite colleague scrutiny or petty gossip introduced kids to texts we may have only found with their help. Morrison, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Ginsberg, and countless other luminaries were sent my and other students’ way. But then again, I went to a public high school in New York. Teachers and students in conservative areas are facing the wrath of their own Kitty Farmers, many of whom have already infiltrated their schools, towns, and state legislatures.
These are scary times. To the Miss Pomeroys across the United States, thank you and keep going.
People hate It: Chapter Two. Unlike many horror sequels or poorly reviewed releases that gain popularity in time, the film has seemingly gained more notoriety. Maybe it’s the occasionally goofy CGI, the heavy comedy, or just how overstuffed it is, but everyone is really down and out on it. Still, though, I will defend this movie like a member of the Losers Club defending their Ka-Tet (deep-cut King reference for you constant readers).
But why, though? Objectively, the movie can feel overstuffed. The CGI is a little goofy. Well, despite all this, I believe It: Chapter Two captures the pure essence of the book. It captures the heart, the terror, and metaphors about small town America excellently…even better than the first one.
It: Chapter Two Is the Ultimate Stephen King Movie
Listen…I am a simple man. If you have this much pure Stephen King energy in a movie, I am going to love it. Why King fans did not grasp onto this movie, I do not know, because it is probably the most “Stephen King” Stephen King movie ever.
We have the small, Maine town and characters from the book, yes, but also a fantastic cameo from the big man himself. Seriously, this movie is like Avengers: Endgame for constant readers (even though Castle Rock is technically more of a crossover). The movie has the heart, small-town summer feeling, and aesthetics for a King film to the max. Whether that is a positive or negative depends on the viewer, but constant readers can relish in how set the movie is on capturing King’s Americana.
It: Chapter Two Understands the Stephen King Novel
Yes, the movie is sillier than the first installment. It’s technically less proficient and cleaner than its predecessor. Still, this movie just generally captures both the message and energy of the book. Don’t get me wrong, It (2017) is excellent in that it feels like a haunted house walkthrough. There are lots of different entities Pennywise dresses up as to attack. It’s colorful, fun…but it takes a lot of liberties. This is fine, but It: Chapter 2 painstakingly portrays the deeper undercurrents and plot beats of the novel.
The Horror Beneath It: Chapter Two
It has always been a story about the darkness behind America’s suburban facade. Behind all of the killer clown and creature feature/cosmic fun, it is about how America’s past will always linger, and is always darker than any fictional entity. It: Chapter 2 does not shy away from its portrayal of bigotry, or its bigger messages about racism and America’s past. The first one has elements of it, but really, Chapter 2 feels like it peels back the kid’s-on-bikes stuff to get to the nitty-gritty of the story.
Additionally, the movie gets the casting down perfectly. Not saying It did not have some of the best child performances ever, but finding not only worthy adult counterparts, but book-accurate players would have to be an arduous task. Huge shout-out to the casting team for absolutely nailing this.
Bill Skarsgård Makes Pennywise Even Scarier
The whole cast blows this movie out of the water, but Pennywise in this one steals the show. Skarsgard is rarely anything less than excellent, but he gets his true horror laurel here. He plays the role as sinister as possible, landing some humor but never letting it weigh down the fear factor.
He is a force to be reckoned with. When making something like a killer clown movie in contemporary times, you have to be really careful not to make it just straight-up silly. Art the Clown is, of course, pure nightmare-fuel, but when approaching the horror big top, it can unintentionally end up feeling like a mismarketed Goosebumps episode.
This, though, is not a case like that. Pennywise is nightmarish in this. His voice is more sinister, and he reads as a predatory cosmic entity, and not just another slasher villain. Fun and frightening, Pennywise pulls no punches in bringing the horror in Chapter 2.
It’s not unreasonable to think most American horror fans can probably name only one Mexican horror filmmaker: Guillermo del Toro. Given how many fantastic films he’s made and how successful so many of them have been, it’s easy to see how he became a household name, but he’s far from the only Mexican filmmaker with a taste for the macabre. Rubén Galindo Jr. may be a major telenovela producer now, but in the 1980s he wrote and directed independent genre films in Mexico that likely influenced the kind of filmmaker del Toro would become. Galindo Jr. isn’t some obscure figure in Mexican entertainment, but he’s also not as widely known as he should be in horror circles, despite having many of his genre films available from Vinegar Syndrome.
In celebration of Latin Heritage Month, I wanted to shed a light on Galindo Jr.’s films not just because they are a lot of fun, but also because of how underseen they still are. Galindo Jr.’s early films mark a complete departure from the work he does now, so much so that you’d think it’s different people, but his early career genre films were important and part of a familial legacy of both the Galindos and the Cardonas (the royal families of Mexican genre films).
The Galindo Family Legacy in Mexican Horror
Rubén Galindo Jr., as his name suggests, is the son of Mexican filmmaker Rubén Galindo Aguilar. He first entered the film industry as an actor, but joined his family’s production studio to take on a myriad of roles like set designer, accountant, purchasing manager, and more. His directorial debut in 1969 was for a comedy, Un Amante Anda Suelto, and was the first of 47 films he would direct. While his focus wasn’t explicitly horror, he did direct a couple of films starring Luchador and actor Santo, as well as many Mexican westerns before focusing more on distribution in the 1980s. Coincidentally, around the time his young son, Galindo Jr., would begin his own filmmaking career.
Rubén Galindo Jr.’s Journey Into Mexican Genre Cinema
Galindo Jr. began his filmmaking career by leaving his hometown of Mexico City to attend UCLA, only to return to CDMX in 1983 after graduating with a degree in Film and Television Arts & Sciences. His first film, Cementerio Del Terror, was a huge hit despite being a modest production, and it was the first of many independent horror films Galindo Jr. would take on. While his legacy won’t be built upon the work he did in genre, it certainly started there and evolved beyond the underground and into the mainstream over time.
Cementerio Del Terror (1985): Rubén Galindo Jr.’s Horror Debut
Galindo Jr.’s first film is by far one of his most uneven, but in the same vein, also one of the most entertaining. It starts like so many great horror flicks do: on Halloween, as a group of kids decides to steal a body from the morgue, only to disrupt the ghoulish ghost of a serial killer. While graverobbing isn’t exactly the kind of thing many do for fun, this particular endeavor is in service of a satanic ritual that will go awry, thus leading to all kinds of bloodshed and demonic appearances. There’s a sub-plot involving some premonitions of the killer returning from the dead that go ignored, reasonably so, and where things land is your standard house/cemetery of horrors where the kids are met with all kinds of devious and dastardly demons.
The Horror Influences Behind Cementerio del Terror
With a reported budget of 45-65 million pesos (roughly $275,000-$540,000 US dollars), filming started in 1984, and Galindo Jr. was able to wrangle in well-known Mexican actor Hugo Stiglitz to star in the production. The film was a huge success for Galindo Jr., even if it wasn’t well-received by critics at the time. Galindo Jr.’s influences are apparent in terms of both content and style, as he clearly draws inspiration from John Carpenter’s Halloween and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead. There’s also a heavy helping of Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, even if the ghouls at play here aren’t the zombified kind. It’s truly a smorgasbord kind of horror film that never fully commits to one idea, but knows how to weave them together well enough to be entertaining.
The practical effects may seem ropey by today’s standards, but context and time would dictate that these are quite good considering the circumstances and how much of a trailblazer Galindo Jr. was for making this kind of film at this time in Mexico.
Time has been far kinder to this film than critics were, as it averages a 3.0 on Letterboxd and is the recipient of a now sold-out edition from Vinegar Syndrome. In terms of ranking, this is probably B-Tier for Galindo Jr., which is impressive for a debut feature regardless!
Dimensiones Ocultas (Don’t Panic) and Its Influence
Perhaps the best-known of Galindo Jr.’s early genre films, Don’t Panic is without a doubt his best horror effort, and his most derivative. If Cementerio del Terror was riffing on two horror classics, Dimensiones Ocultas riffs on another. This time, it’s Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. Following very similar story beats, we follow Michael, who, on his 17th birthday, uses a Ouija board with his friends and accidentally unleashes a demon. This demon isn’t your ordinary run-of-the-mill possession type; no, this demon haunts you in your dreams! Michael sees these murders before they happen and tries to warn his friends, to no avail.
Why Don’t Panic Remains a Mexican Horror Cult Favorite
There’s a lot to love about Dimensiones Ocultas, and it’s not hard to see why it has become Galindo Jr.’s most notable genre film. From the strange kid-print adult-sized pajamas that Michael wears to the incoherent plotting, it’s not a film that’s going to appeal to those who prefer tight technical filmmaking and single-threaded plot lines. The characters are hard to take seriously, in part because so many of the voices are dubbed, and if this all sounds like reasons not to like this film, you’re sorely mistaken.
The Elm Street influence is endearing in how sloppily it is transcribed here, but it’s also distinct enough to not feel like a complete rip-off. The demon, Virgil, doesn’t really look like Freddy, but if you squint your eyes after a few drinks, you’d probably not be able to tell the difference. The death scenes are creative and at the same time comedic, so it’s not a film that is easy to take seriously, which is a good thing.
While there are no budgetary numbers that are verifiable, Dimensiones Ocultas shows more ambition in terms of effects and ideas than Cementerio, while not really showing much evolution in terms of screenwriting. Galindo Jr. does have better command of the pacing here, and this too has received the amazing Vinegar Syndrome treatment like Cementerio, but is also sadly out of print. A-Tier Galindo Jr.
Ladrones de Tumbas (1989) A Unique Mexican Slasher
Shortly after Dimensiones Ocultas, Galindo Jr. was back at it, directing his third horror feature, Ladrones de Tumbas. Learning a bit from both of his former features, Ladrones feels far more consistent both in terms of plotting and execution. It does tread familiar ground that harkens back to Cementerio, as a group of teenage treasure hunters unknowingly awaken a malevolent entity hell-bent (literally) on bringing forth the spawn of Satan. The spirit systematically takes out the teens one by one in clever, slasher-centric ways, and while it does feel familiar, it’s never repeating the same stuff seen in earlier Galindo Jr. joints. The effects feel far more accomplished, and the story is much easier to follow, all things considered.
The Forgotten History of Mexican Horror Filmmakers
There’s even less information about this film’s production out there, which is more of a reminder that there is still a woeful lack of study around Mexican horror filmmakers that has penetrated the mainstream. Even in preparing for this article, it’s quite difficult to find trusted sources- hell, any sources besides Wikipedia and IMDb. What we do know happens after Ladrones is that Galindo Jr. would begin his distinction from horror and start making his way West to more dramatic and widely accepted fare. There is one more film that Galindo Jr. would helm for horror, possibly two if you consider Resucitaré Para Matarlos in 1991, before making his big pivot. And you guessed it: the Vinegar Syndrome release of Ladrones is very much out of print. S-Tier Galindo Jr.
Mutantes Del Año 2000 (1992) Rubén Galindo Jr.’s Sci-Fi Horror Experiment
Mutantes del Año 2000 is easily the worst of Galindo Jr.’s genre efforts, and it’s largely because it’s kind of a silly premise. It’s a story about a teacher going through an ugly divorce during a time in the future where pollution is so bad that everyone wears gas masks, and an ex-husband who has been dumping nuclear waste behind the house, mutating the local rodent population. When a giant mutated rat enters the home, the teacher must fight it to stay alive while she’s warding off both the rat and her ex, who wants to keep his nuclear secret. It’s absurd, and it almost feels like Galindo Jr.’s first foray into the more dramatic side of storytelling.
Not only is this one a bit of a slog to get through, but it also loses some of the fun and charm that Galindo Jr.’s previous films exhibited. While the story is a bit more concise and clear, a positive, the delivery leaves a lot to be desired, even if the world-building is somewhat interesting. It’s hard to know, at least without further research or speaking to Galindo Jr. directly, what caused him to fall out of love with genre, but his lack of conviction is apparent here. You can’t fault someone for wanting a change, but I would be remiss not to wonder what it would’ve been like if Galindo Jr. kept refining his abilities for the sake of scares.
Why Rubén Galindo Jr.’s Mexican Horror Films Deserve More Attention
One of the most challenging parts of writing this kind of article is not having enough sources to tell a fully holistic story. Part of this is due to time, as one can only watch so many special features in such a time, but also that there simply aren’t as many primary sources for Mexican horror history and the filmmakers that contributed to it. The fact that so many can’t name more than one Mexican filmmaker says a lot about the lack of information out there, and so if you’re a filmmaker seeking a new topic for a genre documentary, consider Mexican horror. Not only is it fertile ground, but it’s also got a lineage of talent that is still alive to talk about what it was like, something we are reminded of weekly as announcements of deceased horror stars come across our news feeds.
Rubén Galindo Jr. is just one of many who have made their mark on horror in Mexico, and selfishly, I would love to know more about this than what is available. Running a website and working full-time doesn’t leave a lot of time for much else, but it’s important to both remember and celebrate the legacies of those who came before as trailblazers who are just as worthy of our praise as those who become household names.
For more of Matt Orozco’s work, along with many other great horror articles, head on over to Macabre Daily!
