Donkey Punch (DVD)
Reviewed by Serena Whitney
Starring Robert Boutler, Sian Breckin, Julian Morris, Tom Burke
Directed by Oliver Blackburn
Distributed by Magnolia Home Entertainment
We’ve all heard of the sexual fetish nicknames such as “teabagging,” “snowballing,” “golden showers” and let’s not forget the “rusty trombone.” Although as vile as these unspeakable sexual acts are, most of them are not life threatening, though I do think the “dirty sanchez” could cause severe E. Coli poisoning. However there is one sexual act that is not like the rest, and director Olly Blackburn reveals in his dark thriller why the “donkey punch” should generally be a thing people talk about rather than do because this stomach-turning activity can lead to a fatal end.
The film starts out like any other movie dealing with characters travelling abroad. Three gal pals from Leeds are in Spain in search of wine, men and a great time. On their journey they run into four men (also from the U.K) who convince them to board their yacht, go out to sea and extend their partying for the rest of the night. Insert “shaking of head” here.
After many drinks, Ecstasy, and smoking out of a crack pipe, two of the girls venture off with three of the guys to partake in a videotaped and drug infused orgy. When one of the girls turns up dead after one guy performs the film title’s coup de grâce on her, the trip takes a deadly turn for every one of the passengers as they all slowly turn on one another. Bloodshed, chaos, and explicit orgies ensue.
First time director Olly Blackburn and writer David Bloom deliver the best boat horror film since Dead Calm. Blackburn is able to take a great setting and use it to its full advantage as Donkey Punch is able to create the perfect blend of claustrophobia, paranoia and chill-inducing horror that is vital for a memorable thriller.
What I liked best about it was that it didn’t take the easy route by having a monster or killer find the characters in an isolated setting. Instead, the film delved into the human psyche and revealed the monsters living inside the characters. Alliances are as faithful and as easily broken as they are on “Survivor”, inexplicable acts are committed and people whom you would least expect reveal the inner strength and rage that lives within. Donkey Punch is able to successfully convey what humans are capable of doing (both good and bad) in extreme life-threatening situations, and that, to me, is far more frightening because it makes the events in the film that much more believable.
Even though the film proudly wears its NC-17 rating on its sleeve with its intensely gory scenes and nearly pornographic sex scenes (note: Please refrain from watching this with or near a family member), it’s shockingly NOT exploitative. What is shown in Donkey Punch is unlike the gratuitous gore and nudity viewers normally expect from slashers because it’s able to depict the violence and the sex in a realistic way. Sure, I shook my head and my fist at the screen and was fairly embarrassed by my gender. However, it wasn’t in the way I react to seeing a one-note dumb blonde topless cheerleader trip over her Jimmy Choo stilettos in a horror movie. I was embarrassed simply because the situation is not far-fetched. In real life women have gone missing on vacation merely due to the fact they threw common sense out the window and had little to no regard for their personal safety when casually “hooking up” with total strangers. The violence and sex in the movie are shot in a way to make viewers feel like they are flies on the wall rather than to simply please the fans with visceral and gratuitous goodies.
The kills in the movie are also brilliantly executed; one of them in particular had me jump in my seat. I don’t want to give anything away since the element of surprise is vital to each and every one of the kills, but I will say that the women in this movie are far from being meek and helpless victims. They do everything in their power (and I mean EVERYTHING) to get off the boat in one piece.
Now even though Donkey Punch has a lot of great and scary things going for it, unfortunately it did leave me disappointed a few times throughout, mainly because the second half relied far more on generic slasher tactics rather than focusing on the intense survival thriller it had slowly built up throughout the first half.
Which brings up another flaw of the film: the pacing. It takes a long time to get going, which is forgivable considering viewers get hit hard with a “donkey punch” to the cerebrum (hehehe) in the middle. However, after that point there was no reason for it to slow down even more. Especially since it sets up the final girl archetype literally in its first frame. It’s very obvious from the get-go how things are going to play out, and trimming twenty minutes could have made for a tighter and more suspenseful film.
In terms of special features we get a pretty good package. Things kick off with a commentary by director Oliver Blackburn, and from there we get deleted scenes, a making-of, and several interviews.
Asides from a couple of disappointing factors, Donkey Punch is still a sexually charged and uber-violent film that is sure to shock general audiences and make genre fans grin from ear to ear.
Special Features
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“>3 1/2 out of 5
Special Features:
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3 out of 5
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