#4. Donkey Punch [2009]

" This Party Has Gone Overboard "



UK[99m] Directed by : Oliver Blackburn Written by : David Bloom, Oliver Blackburn Music by : François Eudes Cinematography : Nanu Segal Starring : Nichola Burley, Tom Burke, Julian Morris, Robert Boulter Release Date : July 18, 2009 [UK], January 23, 2009 [USA]

Donkey Punch is a 2008 British thriller film about a group of British people on holiday in Spain who end up fighting for their lives. The film was written and directed by Oliver Blackburn and David Bloom, and stars Nichola Burley, Tom Burke, Jaime Winstone, Robert Boulter and Julian Morris. The movie was filmed in 3 weeks with a budget of £500,000.

A drug-fueled orgy aboard a yacht goes terribly wrong in Olly Blackburn's Donkey Punch, and if you're hip to the title's slangy meaning, you already know what happens. If you don't, then Wikipedia's definition will gladly provide the spoiler: "an apocryphal and potentially lethal sexual practice" -- and that's how the party turns ugly.Up to that fatal smack, Donkey Punch is all jiggling bikinis, Mediterranean sunlight, and girly giggles as three lassies from Leeds cruise Mallorca, trying to forget unfaithful boyfriends back home. Tammi (Nichola Burley) is the cute innocent one who doesn't know a donkey punch from a dirty sanchez, but she senses trouble right away when four young men invite her and her friends on the boat they're working on as crew.

This being Mallorca, there's a sunset, bad techno, and ecstasy, and after a few more shots of jiggling bikinis and toned abs, the movie gets down to business with an extended group sex scene. Egged on by tough guy Bluey (Tom Burke) and his video camera, milquetoast Josh (Julian Morris) accidentally kills Lisa (she's the blonde one, played by Sian Breckin). For Tammi and Kim (Jaime Winstone), the giggles turn to screams.This much, more or less, you could have figured out from the title alone. What follows is a misbegotten attempt at a claustrophobic, paranoid psycho-thriller -- a boat at night, six survivors, an incriminating video tape, a sexy corpse -- that is so hilariously over the top that by the the second or third death, my initial dismay turned into delight. Never mind that nobody's motivations add up, that every character's a type, and that Blackburn's direction relies almost exclusively on shaky close-ups and the occasional out-of-place slow motion effect for tension. There are knives on that yacht! Also, flares, guns, and churning outboard engines!

Donkey Punch is by no means a good movie, and it barely even qualifies as passable genre fare. As far as I could tell, it's not meant as self-consciously trashy, Grindhouse-style entertainment either, and that's why I ended up enjoying it after all; its narrative failures and unintentional hilarity are the result of an honest-to-god effort to make a character-based thriller on a small budget. Somehow, the gurgling blood and naked skin derailed all that. When the dying bloke with the butterfly knife protruding from his chest sank his face into a Scarface-size heap of blow, I realized my two hours weren't wasted entirely. Donkey Punch is lusty, lurid, and completely laughable. Here's hoping for a bright future on late-night cable.

Official Website : http://donkeypunchmovie.co.uk