Miscellaneous - Donkey Punch

by Sarah Maybank

published: 20 / 6 / 2008

With a strong soundtrack that swings from Peter, Bjorn and John to Bloc Party, Sarah Maybank finds much to enjoy in claustrophobic new British thriller, 'Donkey Punch'

Article

Three girls, four boys, a ton of drugs and a hijacked millionaire playboy’s yacht. Of COURSE it’s all going to end in tears. And lots of nubile, 20-something hedonists ending up as random sets of twitching body parts. That’s what horror thrillers are about, after all - ask Freddy and Jason. When party-loving Leeds lasses, Tammi (Nichola Burley), Lisa (Sian Breckin) and Kim (Jaime Winstone) rock up to Mallorca on a girls’ weekend, they think all their ships have come in – literally – hitching up with a gap-year posh-boy boat crew keen to show off their craft. Within hours they’re bumping, grinding and snorting everything in sight on deck, as the deep, blue Mediterranean glistens endlessly around them. But then a gross bedroom stunt goes murderously wrong, instantly pitching boys against girls in a game of death, with incriminating footage of the incident the coveted prize. There’s lots to admire about an ambitious, low-budget Brit-flick that trusts its young, up-for-it cast to carry the entire plot. The soundtrack carries the action nicely, from the breezy chirpiness of Peter, Bjorn and John following the girls around the bars of Mallorca, to the paranoid angst of Bloc Party as things start to get dark and nasty. And it’s a genius touch ramping up the claustrophobia by confining all the action to a boat that, in the space of minutes switches from luxury playpen to gilded cage. But there are stumbling blocks, namely bad boy Bluesy (Tom Burke) whose supposedly cool, painfully slow ‘street’ patois actually makes him sound like he’s just come out of a persistent vegetative state. Surprisingly, there’s not much in the way of atmosphere, and the dialogue lacks the sparkle you need to propel a genre film where you know the ending before it’s even started. Still, it doesn’t lack for ‘he’s behind you’ shock-horror moments meaning, for a post-pub Friday night cinematic scream-fest, it’ll more than tick all your boxes regardless.