DVD Review: ‘Donkey Punch’

The Movie:

American audiences have a strange fascination with debauchery.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not excluding myself out of this group (I love ‘Rules of Attraction’ & it is in my top 100 films of all time), but I always found it odd how something that we shouldn’t really care about with fictional characters became interesting when committed to celluoid.   Some people believe it my be the self destructive nature of it all.   Before you say “Andy, I’m a way better person than this.”, check your DVD shelf and look for that movie called “American Pie”.  That’s what I thought.   Put it back and hang your head in shame in trying to prove me wrong.

Let’s face it, seeing someone on the screen trying to work his or her way to get sexual satisifaction can be entertaining.   That brings me to ‘Donkey Punch’.   What starts out a fun, light & colorful film following some British youths looking for a good time, slowly spirals into dark territory.   The party starts on land with three young, beautiful ladies as they meet up with some dudes at a party and run off after stealing a bottle of bubbly.

Deciding that the shore cannot hold them down, the three girls convince the boys – who are mates on a yacht – to take it out to the open shore.   Of course, this is where their fun turns sour and then spins out of control.

The daylight scenes shown in the film are beautiful and bring a light sense to the film.   As soon as the sun sets, the events follow the sun into darkness.   I will spare you to the definiton of what a DONKEY PUNCH is.   I highly recommend you find out through the movie, if you don’t know – pervert.

Once a character dies, the remaining youths try to cover up the accidential death.   We are then treated to basically the characters battling it out on whether they should tell the truth or not.

While I love the first half  of the film, the problem with ‘Donkey Punch’ is in the character development.   These characters put the viewer in a tough situation as we really don’t get to know the characters therefore, when the shit hits the fan – you are just going to see how they get out of it.   The director, Olly Blackburn, has the chops and the ability to direct.   The problem lies in the script.   Why should we care about the characters?   He could have used the script to it’s advantage and turned out a little revenge film or possibly just a display on how these kids turn against each other and off themselves in horrible ways.   This is not this film.   I will commend and applaud to the bold attempts to not shy away from the explicit sexual scenes.

‘Donkey Punch’ is bold & ultimately unsatisfying and is best viewed with low expectations as it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre of horror or thrillers.   Gosh darn it if it doesn’t look pretty though.

[Overall: 2.75 out of 5 – rent it if curious]

DVD Features:

Included on the DVD are Deleted Scenes, a featurette on the Making of ‘Donkey Punch”, interviews with the cast & the director, and a Director Commentary.   The commentary is carried out by the director and one of the producers that ranges from why they shot in South Africa.   Having a producer with a director on a commentary track always interests me.   If you really enjoy the film, this would be something you would want to check out.