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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Terrror 101: How To Survive A Porno Film for Dummies, April 8, 2009
As a setting, the horror, thriller, and suspense genres have had a mixed amount of luck out at sea, despite the location being ripe for fear. From the high-brow cinematic treasures like Knife in the Water (1962) to the A-list cast Dead Calm (1989), the hokey Ghost Ship (2002), and the average Below (2002): the enclosed, isolated atmosphere of the ocean can create the setup for many claustrophobic movies dependent on tension. One such film is Donkey Punch: survival horror about a group of youths that become torn apart when one of them dies during a yacht cruise. Lines are drawn amongst those on the boat and violence and murder begins to spiral out of control. Do note, that the word "Donkey Punch" refers to a dangerous and depraved sex act, which serves as the catalysis for the events that take place. As a terror ride Donkey Punch is much better than most, with much of the last hour of the film well near riveting, even if much of what is done is expected.
Despite some of its clear flaws, Donkey Punch breaks barriers of what can be considered taboo, especially amazing in a time of alleged torture porn films and arty non-simulated sex movies like The Brown Bunny (2003). This film is quite shocking in nearly every way imaginable, but despite many being put off by what is displayed on screen, others hopefully will see that the film is quite masterfully emotional in the nerve-wracking sense. As Donkey Punch is a film that creates a "what if?" scenario and with it a battle of the sexes erupts stemming from introspection for some of the characters and self-preservation for others. The film is unpleasant, yes. However, everything it shows (though done to the extreme) is a fact of life: whether it be gratuitous and unpleasant sexual acts or even murder to sustain a normal existence. Donkey Punch has a strong center in that aspect and in fact in many ways it is a morality tale.
Donkey Punch sets itself up to stall often due to the premise being rather thin (how many times can we really have conversations about the videotape that then later escalates into violence?) despite many of the obvious characters arcs, stereotypes, and situations dressed up in a different way the flick still works pretty well. As with his first directorial effort, Olly Blackburn, does an admirable job.
Production wise the film is quite impeccable: cinematographer Nano Segal brings an excellent sense of location to both the yacht and atmosphere. The film is moodily scored (by Francois-Eudes Chanfrault) and Blackburn's sound design adds additional oomph!. Blackburn also tells the story in both a nice clip and the acting department is fantastic by all, as well. Also notable is the way that despite a good twenty-five minute character-building intro, the characters really come into their own when the action begins: characters develop and mold with the tension, which is something that is often missing in films, both new and old.
Underrated and misunderstood, Donkey Punch is a film that may be often rote in much of its screenplay elements, yet when it comes to fear it gets the job done quite nicely.
Grade: 8.0 / 10 (In 0.5 Increments)
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Guess I saw a different film..., April 5, 2009
Had to give it one extra star on the production feel, as the film stock and camera work were adequate for being a boat film. Other than that, it falls into that guilty pleasure category, which is the only excerpt on the cover I agree with.
The story has been told here already, but I admittedly had to be advised by a customer (before I had seen the film) what the title meant. As a result I have already had several others ask if it was a porn because of the title, which the answer is no - but there were numerous times where the acting appeared as if though they were on a porn set. I honestly felt the acting was fair to below average, but the story is so mismanaged that by the end, any believability or hair of reality is gone. The first half is filled with drinking, drugs and explicit sex. The last half is filled with a light comedy sketch of how not to put a "tense thriller" together.
Tons of cliches to fill here, ripe with the pointless killing of one self after saving your friend, having dialogue scenes with the people that just tried to kill you as if all is well, planning one's alibis better when naked, etc. In the end, you know you just watched a low grade film that catered to the guilty side of watching good looking young people having sex then killing each other.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Reality beats, November 7, 2009
Movie-makers embedded an explicitly-strange reality of everyone environment where friends and relatives could have turned into murderous opposites in circumstances initiated even with mythological events a not-so-broadly-known love-making position "Donkey punch" initiated in this movie of gratifying own desires young people.
DVD visional and sound qualities leave a broad room for improvement.
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