Donkey Punch (2008)

Donkey Punch (2008) – Things go drastically wrong for a group of British holidaymakers in Spain.

Donkey Punch was written and directed by former music video director Oliver Blackburn. The British production consists of girls Lisa (Sian Breckin), Kim (Jaime Winstone) and Tammi (Nichola Burley), who are on holiday in Spain when they meet an attractive group of men; Bluey (Tom Burke) , Sean (Robert Boulter), Marcus (Jay Taylor) and Josh (Julian Morris).

The girls agree to go on their expensive yacht and begin with the partying. Between the Champagne, ecstasy and sex talk, below-deck hookups seem a foregone conclusion, as does the emergence of a video camera for porn-tape posterity. But when one of the guys opts for a specific sexual practice, namely the donkey punch, things turn disastrously fatal and the night turns into a battle of survival.

So what on earth is a donkey punch I hear you say? Well, that would ruin the surprise, but the image below is just before the move takes place. Maybe not one to try at home………..

With one dead, the boys & girls take sides as they attempt to cover-up the accidental murder and avoid blame. Few of the characters survive to see the end credits, and it’s never clear exactly who you should root for. It’s hard to cling to any one character – or group of characters – that you can empathize with. None of the characters are villainous by nature, and when all is said and done, it’s hard to imagine that a situation like this could truly happen. But for the sake of this film, they do, and I really only liked a couple of the characters.

While character development is minimal, Nichola Burley establishes herself well as the protagonist, and Jaime Winstone (daughter of the always excellent Ray) is good as the mouthy girl of the group. The guys were all quite irritating, with one in particular really excelling in making me hate his character. If you’ve seen the film, you will know who I mean. Lets just say drug dealing posh white guys who speak like they are streetwise black guys are quite common here in the UK, and even more irritating when on the big screen. I would even go as far as saying viewers from outside the UK may struggle with the range of English accents used, we certainly have some hard to understand ones over here.

Director Oliver Blackburn shot the film on a £1 million budget over 24 days in South Africa. Movie critics likened his work on the film to filmmaker Peter Berg’s Very Bad Things, director Phillip Noyce’s Dead Calm, and Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water. He went on to serve as writer for the film Vinyan, which I reviewed last year and sadly wasn’t impressed with. Whilst Donkey Punch may not be as good as those films it was compared to, it was clear where his influences came from, and he delivered a solid film, just nothing spectacular. It did look fantastic though, bright and easy on the eye (not just the naked girls), which is all remarkable on a £1 million budget.

In conclusion then, Donkey Punch has some decent acting and fast pacing, it’s visually very impressive and there are some unique moments. It does get dark and bloody, people die in various ways and we have some resourceful uses of emergency flares and an outboard motor. Overall it’s an entertaining picture – as long as you don’t mind nudity, sex, drugs and bloodshed. Sure, it might not sound the most plausible story and the events that occur seem very far-fetched, but some films like to show us how far humans will go to save their skin, and Donkey Punch is just another addition to the genre. And a pretty worthy addition I must add.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on July 11, 2013

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