Donkey Punch – 2008 | 99 mins | Thriller | Colour

Plot Synopsis

This waterborne hedonistic thriller from debut director Olly Blackburn doesn’t exactly scream with originality, fusing together the sexual profligacy of Dead Calm with the claustrophobic tension of Shallow Grave, all to a Clubland soundtrack for the Club 18-30 generation. The admirable script, co-written with David Bloom, opens promisingly but struggles to maintain both realism and tension once the blood starts flowing, and gradually descends into clichéd slasher predictability.

Three young Yorkshire women (Jaime Winstone, Nichola Burley, Sian Breckin) on a girls’ holiday to Mallorca encounter three well-spoken deckhands (Jay Taylor, Tom Burke, Julian Morris) in a nightclub. The girls are invited back to the expensive yacht vacated by its affluent owner. Weighing anchor, they head off out to sea. They laugh, they flirt, drinks flow, and as the sun sets the repellent Bluey introduces drugs, sex and camcorders into the mix. The easy, erotically charged mood escalates into an anything-goes orgy that flips dangerously out of control on the commission of the aggressive sex act of the title. As the middle-class London boys try to cover up the incident, the girls become nervous wrecks and a bloody fight for survival ensues.