The internet aesthetic Dark Academia has been a popular internet phenomenon during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic; this popularity allowed the aesthetic to form its own loyal community, the Dark Academies, who wish to embody the spirit of Dark Academia the romantic ideals of being an academic. This study examines Dark Academia and how the community establishes films as foundational icons for the aesthetic. Through a combination of Entwistle's framework on dress as an embodied practice and Hansen's model for studying characters, the research explores how the Dark Academia community recontextualizes films to align with their aesthetic. The five films analyzed in this study_ Kill Your Darlings (2013), Dead Poets Society (1989), Maurice (1987). The Riot Club (2014), and Tolkien (2019) serve as key examples of films that have been canonized within the Dark Academia community. By curating these films and elevating certain elements as icons, Dark Academics actively shape the definition of Dark Academia. This study uncovers the interconnected process between the aesthetic Dark Academia and the Dark Academics; the aesthetic serves as an inspiration for its community, while the community recontextualizes films and establishes them as icons in order to further define what Dark Academia is.