With a name like Donkey Punch that references a vile sex act, you’d expect this film to shock, offend and be controversial at least. Yet, when I watched this flick I found it much more boring than ballsy.
Three women named Kim (Jaime Winstone), Lisa (Sian Breckin) and Tammi (Nichola Burley) are vacationing in Spain so that Tam can get over her cheating ex. After hitting the bars, they meet three guys named Marcus (Jay Taylor), Bluey (Tom Burke) and Josh (Julian Morris) who convince the girls to come have a drink on their luxury yacht. Once on board, they meet Sean (Robert Boulter) and learn that the boys are the crew of the yacht. Nonetheless, the girls decide to stay and indulge in some drinking, drugs and debauchery.
The group takes the yacht onto the high seas for a bit more privacy and take hits of Ecstasy and crack. They begin talking about kinky sex acts and Bluey tells them of the infamous “donkey punch”.
After a dip in the ocean three guys and two girls head below decks for some action while Tam and Sean strike up a conversation on the main deck. Downstairs, things heat up but go wrong fast as the “donkey punch” is tried but results in a girl’s broken neck.
Panic and paranoia ensue, as the guys want to dump the dead body overboard but the girls want to report the crime to the police. Pretty soon everyone is turning against each other and the situation spirals out of control as it becomes apparent it is kill-or-be-killed.
After all the hype surrounding Donkey Punch (despite the fact that it bombed in its native England), I was pretty psyched to see it. I have to say, though, that I was pretty disappointed. It isn’t necessarily a bad movie, but it does get repetitive fast and it is a bit of a bore, not to mention it lacks the shock value I was expecting.
First of all, none of the characters get any proper development, so I didn’t care about the lot of them. At the beginning of the film, it is alluded who the “final girl” is, but the film doesn’t focus on her character enough and she ends up just being another character with no real personality. The actors do an okay job in their roles, but nothing too spectacular as they aren’t given much to work with by writers Olly Blackburn (who also directed) and David Bloom.
Secondly, the story was poorly developed. I liked how it built up slowly to the “donkey punch” scene, but after that the storyline just got messy. One minute the characters were headed to shore, the next they are headed to international waters and the next they change their minds again and decide to stay put. I understand the confusion that would occur after a tragedy, but this wishy-washiness just didn’t feel genuine. It seemed like the writers were struggling more with the story’s direction instead of the characters actually grappling with their choices. Also, while it was interesting to see the character’s interactions and how they turned on one another, the story felt lacking and got to be repetitive. It just seemed that people did the same things over and over again, like yelling at each other or trying to hide/escape the ship but getting found every time. There just wasn’t enough story to fill the hour and a half running time.
On the plus side, the kill scenes were almost always surprising. They came seemingly out of nowhere and really made me sit up and take notice. Too bad the rest of the film was a snooze. The implements of death themselves weren’t too inventive (knives, flares, etc.), but they caused enough damage! The best scene was where someone is dispatched by a boat propeller – but it happens when you least expect it! The gore and special FX in this specific scene were amazing as well. The gore in the rest of the film is decent, but doesn’t deliver a major blood bath.
Donkey Punch is a decent time-waster, but it doesn’t live up to the hype. It’s not the taboo-smashing, shocking horror flick I was expecting, but rather a psychological look at the break-down of a group of people that has no where to run (literally) to escape a tragedy. Good for a rental, just don’t expect to be knocked off your feet by Donkey Punch.
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