While on a holiday in Mallorca, Lisa, Kim, and Tammi meet four young men, Bluey, Josh, Sean, and Marcus. After spending the day at the resort together, the girls are invited to the men's yacht, where they plan to party out at sea. While aboard the boat, they take drugs and the conversation turns to sex, and in particular, types of sexual acts. Bluey describes a sex act called a "donkey punch" which involves punching the woman in the back of the head while having doggy style sex in order to increase the sexual pleasure for the man.
Marcus, Bluey, Kim, and Lisa go to the master bedrooms, where they begin having drug-fuelled sex. They are watched by Josh who, known to all involved, lingers furtively in the darkness recording the action with a camera. Bluey, who is copulating with Lisa, asks Josh to film the action and then both of them beckon Josh to have sex with Lisa. Immediately prior to ejaculation and with Bluey's encouragement, Josh donkey punches Lisa but uses excessive force, breaking her neck and killing her instantly. To cover up the incident, the men decide to throw the body overboard while the women want to report it to the authorities, and argument ensues about what to do with the tape. Bluey continually insults Tammi and in a fit of rage, she stabs him in the chest with a knife, and the women escape in the yacht's tender. However, the girls soon realise that the tender's outboard motor is missing (a cut scene shows it still attached to the yacht). In a fit of despair, Tammi fires a flare, attracting the attention of the men. They quickly locate and pick up the women.
As the men attempt to get the women aboard, threatening them with a shotgun, Kim shoots a second flare directly at Marcus. The flare explodes into Marcus's torso and slowly burns him to death. Josh locks the recaptured women in one of the rooms below. Sean asks Josh to "call in" and request medical assistance for Bluey. However, knowing that Bluey still has the tape that contains footage of him dealing the earlier fatal blow, Josh instead decides to discover its whereabouts by torturing Bluey. He does this by withholding pain numbing drugs from him. Bluey reveals the location of the tape, beneath the bed in the state room. Tammi escapes the room by smashing through the glass door and cutting herself, and overhears Bluey mention where the tape is. She frantically roams the boat trying to locate it. She does this just moments before Josh attempts to retrieve it. Unable to find the tape, Josh returns to Bluey, stepping up the torture by turning his attention to the knife which still protrudes from the wound. Josh ultimately takes this too far and, following Bluey's pained protestations that he has already revealed the location, he twists the knife further into the wound before pulling it out, causing Bluey to die.
Sean tries to bring the situation under control by retrieving a shotgun from Josh. He then tries to calm both Josh and Tammi from a frantic argument about the whereabouts of the tape. Kim notices Sean holding a shotgun with Josh and Tammi visibly upset from an adjacent room. She misinterprets his intentions towards Tammi and Josh, and brutally kills Sean with the propeller of an outboard motor. After realizing her mistake, she manically commits suicide by jumping overboard, leaving Josh and Tammi as the only ones left. A distraught Tammi decides that she cannot remain on the boat any longer. Josh agrees, and readies the tender. His plan is to leave the yacht, get back to shore and claim that there was an accident. As Josh pushes the tender away from the yacht, Tammi quietly takes hold of the end of the mooring rope at the stern.
Once the tender has floated some distance from the yacht, Josh pulls his hunting knife from his shorts and points it at Tammi. He demands the incriminating tape from Tammi and, fearing for her life, she obliges, throwing it on the floor of the tender. As a distracted Josh reaches for the tape, Tammi quickly throws the looped end of the mooring rope around his neck. The rope immediately reaches the end of its tether and Josh is wrenched into the sea, snapping his neck and killing him. Tammi, now the sole survivor, fires a distress flare in the hope of being rescued. She then lies down on the tender and morbidly stares up at the night sky, as the raft drifts away into the ocean.
Filmmaker Olly Blackburn directed Donkey Punch, which he co-wrote with David Bloom.[11] He explained that he was in the offices of production company Warp X discussing television options with company co-founder Robin Gutch when he first thought to make a movie about the topic.[5] He and David Bloom discussed the idea and concept with Warp X management and successfully convinced them to go ahead with the film.[5]
His total budget for the film was £1 million.[2][3]
In an interview with Total Film, Blackburn commented, "I think Donkey Punch is an extreme thriller or an extreme reality-based thriller. The whole point of the film is it’s grounded in reality."[12] Blackburn wrote that he made Donkey Punch, "to try to push the genre."[13]
Donkey Punch was greenlit by Warp X in February 2007.[5] Blackburn chose to look at filming locations in the Southern Hemisphere owing to greater availability of sunlight that time of year.[5]Film shooting for Donkey Punch began in March 2007.[16] Blackburn shot the film in South Africa,[12] over 24 days.[5][17] Blackburn decided upon South Africa because of its cost benefit, its support for the movie production, and the availability of skilled film technicians.[5]Cinematography was handled by Nanu Segal.[18]
Donkey Punch had its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.[22] It was featured among the non-competition titles.[23] The film was Blackburn's first work to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival,[24] where it received a positive reception from the audience in attendance.[19]
Donkey Punch was a film that has divided critics since it was released. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 50% approval rating with an average rating of 5.5/10 based on 51 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Donkey Punch begins as a promising thriller, but loses credibility while adhering too closely to genre conventions."[30] It received a score of 43 out of 100 at Metacritic.[31]
The Guardian described it as "expertly made and painfully tense; a bracing cold snap blowing in off the ocean."[32] In EmpireKim Newman called it "the sexiest most shocking thriller of the year".[33] Other parts of the British press saw less controversy.[34] Elsewhere in the British press The Times called the film "a notable achievement in all departments, handled superbly by its first-time director and largely unknown cast, with a tight, frighteningly plausible script. ... Donkey Punch has a respect for formula but, more importantly, a commitment to doing things differently, and properly. A scary, truly edgy film."[35]
Stephen Holden's review in The New York Times said "There is no transcendent agent of evil; the enemy is within ... the movie remains above the typical splatter ’n’ scream fest. These careless hedonists are convincing, and the ensemble acting feels believable."[36]Aintitcool's Harry Knowles said "Damn I fucking loved it."[37]Rex Reed wrote a review of Donkey Punch for The New York Observer and called it a "slaughterfest" and "the newest footnote in the history of pretty-girls-in-peril pictures".[10]Wesley Morris reviewed the film for The Boston Globe, and commented, "The naughtiness turns nasty, the nastiness turns fatal, and the kids gradually turn against each other. ... And the alive-to-dead pecking order is strictly a horror film convention: The soberer and more virginal you are the better your chances."[38]
Writing in the New York Press, Eric Kohn said "Such a unique thrill. Director Blackburn develops the scenario with remarkably shrewd finesse and builds to a satisfying spectacle."[39]The Village Voice called it "A Knife in the Water for the era of Ugly Briton, package tour imperialism."[40] In a review which graded Donkey Punch a "B", the Boston Herald called the film "dirty, nasty fun", while criticising its lack of originality.[18]The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, "Donkey Punch offers a gripping mix of sexual heat and nasty menace."[6] The Los Angeles Times concluded, Donkey Punch isn't without a certain power as it gleefully turns its careless hedonists into caged, paranoid rats."[7]The A.V. Club gave the film a grade of C+ and wrote that the director, "sustains a tense mood of mistrust, sexual rivalry, and shifting alliances", but lamented that "the film goes off the rails in the final third, sacrificing subtle character work at the altar of blood-and-guts survival horror. As mood-killers go, it's like a jab to the back of the neck."[8]
The Philadelphia Weekly review called the film "an odious little potboiler".[41]Long Beach Press-Telegram called the film a predictable thriller.[42] A review in The San Diego Union-Tribune concluded, "What began as a fairly interesting girls-gone-wild picture becomes just another gorefest with lingering close-ups of wounds and knives being extracted."[43] Though the San Francisco Chronicle called Donkey Punch an "interesting but flawed indie thriller", it determined the final act was "annoyingly routine".[44]Contra Costa Times gave the film a grade of "C" and described it as unoriginal suspense.[45]The Seattle Times called Donkey Punch a "lurid thriller", and was critical of its plot progression towards the middle of the film.[46] The Kitsap Sun described the film as "a nasty, dirty little movie".[47] Though lamenting the predictability of the film's plot, the review offered an instruction for potential viewers, "Prediction isn’t the point, because you know the final score’s going to be 1. The point is to just sit back, if you’re so disposed and not easily offended, and gleefully watch all the nasty, dirty little business go down."[47]
Home media
Donkey Punch was released on DVD on 10 November 2008.[5] It was shown on British TV on the Film 4 channel on 14 December 2013.[48] It was released on DVD in the US on 7 April 2009.
Warp Films is an independent film and television production company based in Sheffield and London, England, UK.
Alexander Simon "Sacha" Gervasi is a British director, screenwriter and former journalist.
Julian David Morris is an English actor. After appearing in the British television series The Knock (1996) and Fish (2000) during his teenage years, he had his first starring role in the American slasher film Cry Wolf (2005). He subsequently had supporting roles in the thriller Donkey Punch (2008), the historical drama Valkyrie (2008), and another slasher film Sorority Row (2009).
Tom Burke is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Athos in the 2014–2016 BBC TV series The Musketeers, Dolokhov in the 2016 BBC literary-adaptation miniseries War & Peace, the eponymous character Cormoran Strike in the BBC series Strike and Orson Welles in the 2020 film Mank.
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Warp X is a British film production company, sister to Warp Films based in Sheffield, UK with further offices in Nottingham and London. The company was founded in 2005 and produces feature films.
Olly Blackburn is an English film director and screenwriter. Born in London, Blackburn had an acting role in the 1982 short comedy film A Shocking Accident; the film won an Academy Award in 1983 for Best Short Subject. He graduated from Oxford University in 1993 where he studied history. Blackburn won a Fulbright Scholarship and pursued graduate studies in film and television at the Tisch School of the Arts. While there, his film Swallowed received New York University's Martin Scorsese Post-Production Award.
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Robert Boulter is an English film, television and theatre actor. He had a guest-starring role on the television series The Bill in 2000. This was followed by a starring role in the play Herons written by Simon Stephens, which was performed in 2001 at the Royal Court Theatre. He had a guest role in the television series Judge John Deed in 2002. In 2004 Boulter landed a role as "Craig" in the episode "Teddy's Story" of the television series The Long Firm. He was cast in the 2005 he played Darren in the world premiere of the Philip Ridley play Mercury Fur, which was performed at the Drum Theatre in Plymouth and the Menier Chocolate Factory in London.
Christopher Jacob Abbott is an American actor known for his work in independent films. In 2011, Abbott made his feature film debut in Martha Marcy May Marlene and his Broadway debut in the revival of the play The House of Blue Leaves.
Tye Kayle Sheridan is an American actor. He is known for playing the young Scott Summers / Cyclops in the X-Men film series (2016–2019) and for his starring role in the science fiction film Ready Player One (2018).
Jay Taylor is an English actor. He is best known for the role of Marcus in the 2008 British Thriller film Donkey Punch.
52 Tuesdays is a 2013 Australian coming of age drama film directed by Sophie Hyde, with the screenplay written by Matthew Cormack and story by Cormack and Hyde. The film centres on a teenage girl dealing with the gender transition of a parent. The film showed at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where it was not only nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, but won the Best Director Award. Over the following year it won numerous other awards and garnered global critical acclaim.
Nasty Baby is a 2015 Chilean-American drama film written and directed by Sebastián Silva and starring Kristen Wiig, Silva, and Tunde Adebimpe alongside Reg E. Cathey, Mark Margolis, Agustín Silva, Alia Shawkat, Lillias White, and Anthony Chisholm.
Josh Mond is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for producing the feature films Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) and Simon Killer (2012), and for writing and directing James White (2015).
Good Time (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is a soundtrack album by American electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never, containing the score for the Safdie brothers' 2017 film Good Time. It was released on August 10, 2017 via Warp Records.
Possessor is a 2020 science fiction psychological horror film written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg. It stars Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott, with Rossif Sutherland, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean, and Jennifer Jason Leigh in supporting roles. Riseborough portrays an assassin who performs her assignments through possessing the bodies of other individuals, but finds herself fighting to control the body of her current host (Abbott).
Fair Play is a 2023 American erotic psychological thriller film written and directed by Chloe Domont in her feature directorial debut. Starring Phoebe Dynevor, Alden Ehrenreich, Eddie Marsan, and Rich Sommer, the film focuses on a young couple whose relationship begins to unravel following an unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge fund firm. Rian Johnson was an executive producer on the film.
↑ Kendricks, Neil (1 February 2008). "Count on Sundance for startling, thought-provoking indie visions". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Union-Tribune Publishing Co. p.E-3.
↑ Lowman, Rob (23 January 2009). "Too much 'Donkey' and too little punch". Long Beach Press-Telegram. p.3; Section: U; Edition: Valley.
↑ Grant, Lee (5 February 2009). "'Donkey Punch' needs a 'Toxic Film' warning". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Union-Tribune Publishing Co. p.22; Section: Entertainment: Night & Day; Edition: Final.
↑ Hartlaub, Peter (6 February 2009). "Donkey Punch". San Francisco Chronicle. p.E6; Section: Datebook; Edition: Advance.
↑ "'Donkey Punch' comes up short on punch". Contra Costa Times. Walnut Creek, California. 6 February 2009. p.8T.
↑ Fry, Ted (13 February 2009). "A smart "Donkey" takes a ride on the dark side". The Seattle Times. p.E14; Section: Movie Times; Edition: Fourth.
1 2 Moore, Michael C. (20 March 2009). "'Donkey Punch' is Every Bloke and Bird for Themselves". Kitsap Sun. Bremerton, Washington. p.W14; Section: Entertainment, Movies.
↑ Watson, Steve (14 December 2013). "Donkey Punch". Film4. film4.com. Retrieved 15 December 2013. In a nutshell: From tense psychological thriller to slasher fun, Donkey Punch is a thrilling adventure through hedonism gone sour.
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