Three gorgeous girls holidaying in the beach town of Mallorca meet four charming British boys and end up completely isolated on a luxurious yacht in the middle of the Mediterranean. After meeting the guys in a nightclub, the girls are determined to let their hair down and set off with them on the yacht to party.
The music is started, champagne and drugs are dished out, and the group begin to couple off with each other. But when some of the group take raunchy games too far, a violent sex act results in an accidental death. The guys want to dump her body overboard to avoid being implicated in the death, which was all captured on video tape. The exotic fantasy rapidly descends into a nightmare of violence, paranoia, and terror.
The first-time director Olly Blackburn and co-writer David Bloom introduce a new kind of real-world thriller, different from your average teenage horror flick. It is raw and uncomfortable from the start, yet the unconventional storyline makes the disturbing scenes feel very real for the viewer.
The psychological thriller introduces some brilliant young British actors, especially Jaime Winstone, who also starred in the urban teen film Kidulthood. The director effectively creates suspense for the first half of the film, building up on the characters and the plot, and leaving us wondering what will happen.
Apart from the gory bits, the film is very easy on the eye, with fresh-faced characters, and beautiful Mediterranean scenery - which, later on in the film, looks quite menacing.
It’s originality overrides the familiar elements of an average horror thriller, and the nail-biting suspense leaves your heart racing at times. The women are treated in a very disturbing way by the men, first as objects and then as disposable witnesses.
Donkey Punch is undeniably a very well- written and gravely serious psychological horror film that deals with the aftermath of an accidental death that gets progressively worse as factions are formed, friendships dissolve, and they each conspire against the other trying to save themselves.
Unpredictable and clever, Donkey Punch is not like your average Hollywood ‘Don’t go up the stairs!’ slasher movie.
