Donkey Punch

Donkey Punch is more than competently directed, almost every aspect of it is superbly executed - save for the tiny matter called screenplay. The plot is so tired words cannot begin to describe it. There is not one event that cannot be foreseen from miles ahead by anyone who has seen more than two thriller movies in recent years.

The director is obviously very talented, and even the acting is above average compared to this type of fare (I'm looking at you My Bloody Valentine 3D with your silent movie-type overacting) but the plot is such a bore and there is a distinct lack of suspense throughout that instead of generating thrills it almost put me to sleep.

Any real chance of characterization sinks as soon as the characters begin to do awfully predictable and silly things, just for the sake of packing a punch to the audience - which in turn fails because everyone can see them coming.

And to think that British public funding is going to such stinking waste of material and talent is beyond comprehension. I am all for subsidizing mainstream films but Donkey Punch is a knockoff of dozens of movies we have seen, most of them better written.

Just a touch of originality would have elevated Donkey Punch to at least an average level, as it is now it is just not worth the time and investment. On the plus side: the soundtrack is awesome.

Firstly this is not a slasher movie nor could it even loosely be described as a horror it can barely even be described as a thriller as it's largely quite boring, the sex is not explicit and the violence not extreme.

I personally didn't feel the film was misogynistic and was one area where the film did succeed by not overtly portraying the females as victims except in places to (unsuccessfully) elicit sympathy and create tension. The female characters are simply one of two opposing sides that develop as a result of the titular sexual act which accidentally results in death which is an alternative to traditional good and bad set ups (as seen in say Eden Lake). If this element had been developed and handled properly it could have lead to an interesting moral conflict instead of lazily resorting to the thriller default plot devices of anger, fear and friends turning on each other.

In addition to the script problems some judicious editing to reduce the running time to around eighty minutes (from 95) would massively help the films leaden pacing which contributes to and ultimately cripples what could have been an interesting and original drama/thriller.

First half of the movie is boring, as if you are watching "American Pie" in a yacht.I really enjoyed the second half.Initially I thought they will be attacked by some bloody sea creature but the fun and drugs lead them to danger.

The best party of the movie is, when you think everything is controlled,it unfolds another chaos.There is a tug of war at time among friends,brothers and girls on the yacht for survival.A little bit of good direction could have made this movie much better, the story line is perfect.

I gave 7/10 because its gore movie with a difference.

The content of graphic sex, sexual violence, drug taking and murder are aimed at an audience that wants to be titillated, and in this modest aim "Donkey Punch" more or less succeeds.Yet somehow Director Oliver Blackburn squanders reliable staple teen horror fare into an indigestible mess which is difficult to stomach.

Four young men and three young women, party, have sex, and then become embroiled in a deathfest when one of the girls dies during a sex act.The acting is fairly good, the characters are fine and the girls, Sian Breckin,Nichola Burley and Jaime Winston (daughter of Ray) look good and are a teenage boys dream, well "up for it".

A setting on a boat always has dramatic potential, confined space, isolation, no escape. It also has some drawbacks, physically you are limited with what you can do.This is where Blackburn errs.The first half hour of scene setting as the characters get to know each other is fine, and the sex scene is convincing. But once the bloodletting starts everything spirals out of control.The actions of the characters are inconsistent at best, and unbelievable at worst.This is no psychological thriller, if you don't know what to do - kill someone,that appears to be the maxim.Each sequence is so episodic, so stand alone, that there appears to be little link with what else is going on.By the end the dramatic tension has evaporated and you just want EVERYONE to die, but quickly.

Apparently this was shot in 24 days, which is quick. But this is no excuse for an inadequate script and screenplay.

This film has gotten some pretty low scores here on IMDB, and to be frank, I can definitely understand why this is the case. That said, I didn't think it was so bad and it passed the time well enough. It's just fairly shallow and stupid.

Truth is though that I can't totally resist a story about a party going terribly wrong, and I guess this is basically what we have here. It's pretty much an exploitation homage, and after the eponymous "donkey punch" episode, it goes exactly as you think it will. The characters, even the girls, are pretty thinly sketched and it's hard to imagine them doing anything outside of the story they are in, but nevertheless, the acting seems solid all across the board and everyone in the production did a commendable job. Still, the film doesn't exactly have any dialogue triumphs, and its climax (ha hah) is in fact the wild intercutting of the sex that rises to a fever pitch and then goes horribly awry. It was pretty hot stuff, and then turned to a genuine "oh crap!" moment, and I appreciated that.

Unfortunately what followed didn't give me anything that I didn't learn from 1970s exploitation movies, and those are a hard act to follow. I understand Dead Calm was an inspiration or at least an influence, but i still haven't seen that one. it's probably better than this was. The film didn't piss me off exactly but it didn't leave me with much feeling of any kind, either, and that's bad. The second half is supposed to be tense and psychologically frought, but it's oddly lifeless. It's all a bit vapid and everyone is pretty and stupid. There's a death that reminded me a little of I Spit on Your Grave. Some of the music was fun. Where'd those young boys get that yacht anyway? if they ever said, I missed it; this is not the sort of movie you'll remember a word from, either.