The second the trailer dropped for Saltburn last fall, I had a deep desire to return to the hallowed halls and literary vibes of the dark academia aesthetic in movies. Grab your Moleskine notebooks and cozy sweater vests as we tip our newsboy caps to the best of this subgenre.
When it comes to dark academia, I am mostly concerned with the aesthetic. My definition of the genre might be more nebulous than yours. I’m interested in stories that take place in or around higher learning, with social class typically (though not always) coming into play, one or more foreboding elements, and (often) the study of classics.
These movies are often, if not always, laden with queer subtext. A downside to this delightful school (pun intended) of cinema is that it tends to focus on characters that are both male and white. I have some great recommendations for dark academia fans that center characters of color, but nearly all of them are from other mediums: Lev Grossman’s The Magicians and the accompanying SyFy series adaptation, The Umbrella Academy, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Wednesday, A Series Of Unfortunate Events on Netflix (but that’s pushing it), the Korean drama Little Women, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play Choir Boy, and Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play.
There are puh-lenty of books that those more well-versed in YA and contemporary fiction could tell you about. The same goes for anime. You could also, always, just live your own dark academic life and get really into poetry. Literature too. But first, let’s set the mood with these films.
Saltburn
The reason for the season, Emerald Fennell’s romp touches some of the tropes from this subgenre on the way to something a little distorted and silly. Before Oliver gets fully drawn into the lavish world of Felix’s home life, they’re both at an elite boarding school. To fans of dark academia as a genre and aesthetic, scenes where Oliver bikes to class, ducks around a darkened pub, and debates literature with Farleigh and his tutor are just as intoxicating as everything that follows.
Selah and the Spades
This hidden gem has a Black female protagonist and a cheerleading subplot. Selah and the Spades is set at a boarding school in Pennsylvania with all the autumnal vibes that dark academia has to offer. The “factions” at the school make the classism more apparent. Paloma, said protagonist, is not only an outsider but a photographer. It’s analog and old-school. It’s dark academia. More of this, please!
Brideshead Revisited
Saltburn immediately drew comparisons to this story, which has been adapted several times, because it shares some of the same basic plot. It’s about a boy who meets another boy at Oxford and goes home with him to his family’s country manor home, where he also enters the orbit of the rich boy’s sister. The 2006 film is probably not the best adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel, but it is the only adaptation with Ben Whishaw, Matthew Goode, and Hayley Atwell.
Dead Poets Society
Not all things Dark and Academia are British, as evidenced by this quintessential film about breaking private school boys out of their monotonous curriculum and pre-ordained lives. It is wild that I watched this movie as a young teenager and related to students who weren’t going through a single thing I was going through. I guess that’s the power of Robin Williams. There’s something so endearing about boys who start an illicit club to, among other things, read poetry. And while Dead Poets Society gets remembered for inspiring lessons and the “O Captain! My Captain” moment, it does get quite dark.
School Ties
A really important thing to know about this movie is that it was written by Dick Wolf of Law & Order fame. It’s set in 1955 and all about a working-class Jewish teenager, played by Brendan Fraser, who gets a football scholarship at a fancy prep school only to discover that the rich kids are horribly antisemitic. He tries to hide who he is, at first, but of course all things come to a head. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, pre-Good Will Hunting (which could be considered dark academia as well) play two of the racist classmates.
Kill Your Darlings
Beat poets meet academia and murder. That makes it one of the darker films on the list, and based on a true story. This 2013 film, which stars Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Elizabeth Olsen, and Michael C. Hall among others is about the Beat Generation at Columbia University in the 1940s. Many of these academics would go on to abandon traditional education (see On The Road, both Jack Keroac’s novel and the 2012 film) but this film depicts their school days.
Tolkien
This film might not work for you as a biopic of J. R. R. Tolkien, but it’s great as a member of this subgenre. Tolkien and his gang of creative, literature-obsessed friends, called the “Tea Club and Barrovian Society,” is about as dark academic as it gets! So what if the movie is more about them hanging out than Tolkien coming up with the Elvish language and how his devout religious beliefs informed the creation of Middle-earth? So what if the Tolkien estate doesn’t even endorse the film? Queer subtext, drinking tea, and discussing poetry with the TCBS lads suits me and my niche interests just fine!
Mona Lisa Smile
What’s this, a dark academia film about an all-girls school? Color me shocked! Julia Roberts plays an art history teacher at a school in the ’50s where more students are pursuing a “Mrs.” than an MFA. She challenges not just their perceptions of art, but their own lives and societal expectations. Roberts’ character brings the most dark academia hues to the film. She’s a renegade in fashion as well as ideology. However, while most of the students prefer pastels, there’s something about the cuts and silhouettes of the decade’s fashion that lends itself to the preppy aesthetic.
The History Boys
Academia reigns in the film adaptation of Alan Bennett’s stage play. The History Boys is about eight students applying for Oxford and Cambridge, and three teachers with opposing methods. Is it better to know the facts, play the game, or feed your soul? Probably all of the above, but the debate persists. There is darkness too. The boys share what we in 2023 would call a “trauma bond” of sorts that they speak about in mostly hushed tones. It’s never 100 percent clear how they feel about it, either, which in my opinion at least contributes to how engaging and alternatively comic and tragic The History Boys is, err, are.
The Riot Club
There’s not an ounce of charm left in the Oxford students that comprise the secret society known as the Riot Club by the end of the movie. If you need a reminder that the upper class is the worst, pop this on. It’s dark af and watchable because the club itself is full of faves from British television and movies: Sam Claflin, Sam Reid, Max Irons, Douglas Booth, Freddie Fox, Olly Alexander, Ben Schnetzer, Jack Farthing, Matthew Beard, and Josh O’Connor. It’s an incredible ensemble cast of incredibly unlikable characters.
Cruel Intentions
Now this dark academia film is based on a work of literature: Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s Les Liaisons dangereuses. The cult classic is set at a private school in New York City, so if you happened to miss it but love Gossip Girl, for example, it may be right up your alley. The only thing this movie doesn’t have a ton of is studying, if I recall correctly. At least, not studying books. They certainly get an education! That’s fine, however. Some dark academia movies are more academic than dark, and vice versa. If you want a West Coast version, I recommend Pretty Persuasion, though it’s a bit too sunny to fit the aesthetic/subgenre in my humble opinion. (For a more modern take, I also recommend Do Revenge. It’s based on Strangers on a Train!)
Maurice
Another film that Saltburn calls to mind, though Saltburn is decidedly more baroque, is this film directed by the incomparable James Ivory and based on the novel by E.M. Forester. The queer love story in Maurice is also more wistful than Saltburn—if you could even call Saltburn a love story. Maybe it is. Anyway, Maurice is about the tortured affair between two Cambridge students that spans decades of passion, repression, comfort, and heartbreak. The Cambridge part is especially key for this list. Let Oxford sit this one out, for once!
Never Let Me Go
This film is a cottage core science fiction tragic romance. That’s a lot of genres already! But it also falls into the dark academia subgenre because of how it twists our expectations of an idyllic English boarding school. If you’ve ever had existential dread about calling your schooling “the best years of your life,” uhh, watch out for this one.
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Another great film set at an all-girls school is Picnic at Hanging Rock. The white flowing dresses in that film tilt it into slightly toward light academia space. However, Peter Weir’s film (that’s based on a true unsolved mystery BTW) is so weird and macabre that I think we have to allow it to share space with dark academia too. When a subgenre is more about vibes than actual rules, you kind of just have to go with it.
The Holdovers
No disrespect to Saltburn, but The Holdovers might actually be the best dark academia film of the year. While the film ultimately centers on a single student, it is about a history teacher and the students left behind over Christmas. Their relationship packs more of a punch than many of the so-called inspirational teachers on this list combined. And I also liked how The Holdovers stresses that everyone’s academic journey is different, and that’s okay. There’s no right or wrong way to learn.
(featured image: Sony Pictures Classics)
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