Review of Donkey Punch (2008) by Timothy S — 23 May 2012

No other genre out there is afraid to cannibalize freely from other films than thrillers and horror movies. Maybe it's because all of the good ideas have already been used, or maybe it's just because filmmakers have become lazy. "Donkey Punch" would like to think it's something special, and it is a lot more graphic and visceral than most.

However, it is very derivative at its core, borrowing heavily from films such as "Dead Calm" or "Very Bad Things" only without the tension of the former or the dark humor of the latter. The set-up is quite good, and I was with the film for the first half. I wanted to see where it would go. Unfortunately, writer/director Oliver Blackburn only does the expected, and his feature film debut really isn't all that special.

Granted, some of the deaths are spectacularly gruesome (especially the death by flare), but Blackburn carries the whole thing out with precious little visual flair. The pacing is off, and there's too much dialogue when the movie should be growing more frantic. The characters aren't very bright either, and it seems to take them a lot longer to figure things out than the audience.

There's some audaciousness here that I liked, from the title to the erotic sex scene, but so much of it is disappointingly routine and ordinary. Frankly, there's no one to root for here, making the whole thing kind of pointless as well. "Donkey Punch" is a film that needed to cut loose bigger and more often than it does, if for no other reason than to set it apart from all the others. It's desperate to be admired, and I did want to like it, but unfortunately it's pretty forgettable.