Review of Donkey Punch (2008) by Alan W — 18 Jul 2008

A few (and by that, I still mean a tiny percentage) horror films of late have managed to portray women less as just victims and more of vicious fighters and survivors, perhaps best demonstrated in Neil Marshall's The Descent, though that also had psychological tensions blowing up between the ladies. This brit-flick from debut director Olly Blackburn doesn't exactly match that earlier film but still offers something a little refreshing for the young and outrageous partying demographic that's more thriller than horror and holiday cautionary tale that's not leaning on the side of Hostel gorno... porno on the other hand...

The films gets it characters together quickly, more of less getting three northern lasses holidaying in Spain together with a group of higher-class guys before the opening credits end, before swiftly taking the action to their yacht, a mobile claustrophobic arena with a few surprises up its sleeve, which aren't nearly as implausible as you'd expect. This is not heading towards slasher or torture-porn territory, despite those suspicious whispers of the lads of setting the plan in motion - they're simply the typical kind of guys looking for a party and a good lay. And getting down and dirty they do, until one guy's experiment in the titular sex move leads to a fatal accident. The build-up to this moment has a subtle ominence to it, mostly in part to being realistic, while the aftermath also gets the tension cracking up. It's also good to know that though the plot looks like a straightforward girls vs boys deadly game, a few characters have their own agendas that make allegiances shifty. That said, as conventions of the genre go, it's all gets predictably and literally bloody as the minutes tick down. Rootability is also not a very strong point for anyone, the lads being the most despicable kind, upper-middle-class going for city or military careers hence needing the thrill of hardcore partying (the second one of the characters opens his mouth, made worse for thinking it cool to call Ibiza 'Beefa', you just can't wait for him to get his painful comeuppance), the ladies being, well, the typically northern kind. That said, the little twists in their actions do get us occasionally changing our minds about whether they should be offed next and as usual, it's quite interesting predicting the order of who will die and how. It's got enough feistiness and edge to make for a tense, if disposable, viewing.