@christorychannel What are the connections between the Virginia legend the Bunny Man and Donnie Darko set in the same area? #donniedarko #movies #movietok #fyp ♬ Gothic Horror Dark Creepy Music Box(1316996) – kurata

If you’ve ever wandered the woods of Fairfax County, Virginia around Halloween, you may have heard whispers of the Bunny Man – an axe-wielding figure in a rabbit costume with origins tracing back to 1970s urban legends. This sinister cryptid may seem like a local curiosity, but the mythology around the Bunny Man has hopped through pop culture, linking him to the cult classic film Donnie Darko and the post-punk British band Echo and the Bunnymen.

The core legend of the Bunny Man springs from a couple alleged incidents in the early 1970s in which a man wearing a rabbit costume and carrying an axe threatened people exploring the Colchester Overpass area. The figure reportedly warned them to leave, lest they meet their doom. Elements of the Bunny Man mythology have likely changed through retellings over the decades. But the core image of a disturbed axe-toting man in a rabbit suit has persisted in Fairfax County lore.

It’s precisely this creepy iconography that seems to have inspired the character of Frank in the 2001 film Donnie Darko. In the psychological thriller, Jake Gyllenhaal’s troubled character Donnie is visited by a monstrous rabbit named Frank, who manipulates him into committing crimes while predicting the end of the world. Donnie Darko’s director Richard Kelly has directly cited the Bunny Man legend as an inspiration. After all, Donnie Darko takes place in Virgina.   The Virginia folklore gave him the idea for a threatening rabbit-costumed figure to drive the film’s surreal plot.

Across the pond in 1980s England, the Bunny Man myth also echoed through the post-punk music scene. The band Echo and the Bunnymen got their whimsical name by referencing the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus, while adding the darkly playful “Bunnymen” twist. With songs like “The Killing Moon” their music evoked the same sense of fantastical doom found in Donnie Darko.  And their rabbit-inspired moniker embodied the cryptid spirit of the Bunny Man.  After all, Donnie Darko and the Song are both about how fate beats will.

So while these three cultural icons seem wildly different on the surface, they’re connected by subterranean tunnels of mythology and symbolism. Whether you encounter the Bunny Man in the Virginia woods, on the silver screen, or through speakers at a concert, that glowing-eyed rabbit hole can take you to darkly fascinating places hidden underneath reality’s surface.