Yes, that is what the film is about. The apocryphal (one would hope) technique for violent gratification plays a pivotal role in the latest installment of Magnet Releasing’s 6-Shooter series of international genre films, leading directly to one death, and setting in motion of a chain of murder and mayhem which results in several more dead bodies. Mixing graphic violence and hipster irony, director Olly Blackburn’s Donkey Punch (trailer here), opens today in New York.Tammi and her two friends might be hot, but they are not that bright, blithely partying with four strange men they have known for maybe an hour in the middle of the Mediterranean, with no regard for the obvious risks. To be fair, Tammi is not thrilled at the prospect herself, but acquiesces to her girlfriends’ enthusiasm, particularly their hard-partying ringleader, Lisa (though the third, Kim, played by British actor Ray Winstone’s daughter Jaime, is not far behind her).
As Tammi gets to know Sean, the responsible ship’s engineer, she starts to feel better about the situation. Soon the drugs come out, while Bluey, a middle-class white Londoner who wants to be Snoop Dog, raises provocative sexual topics (including the title term) to test the girls’ reactions. As things heat up, Tammi and Sean stay on-deck for some sensitive love-making, while Bluey takes Lisa, Kim, and his two mates below deck for a session of video-taped debauchery, which eventually turns deadly.
Suddenly, the men have Lisa’s dead body to dispose of, and a videotape record of her untimely demise. Desperate to protect their futures prospects, the men plan to dump Lisa’s body overboard and head to international waters to report her death as an accident. Scared and angry, Tammi and Kim band together in what becomes a pitched battle of the sexes.
With each brutal skirmish, Blackburn gleefully ratchets up the over-the-top craziness of the film’s violence. Not truly a slasher or horror film, Donkey more closely aligns with the tropes of exploitation films, including the “if-I-had-only-known” laments for innocence (such as it was) lost. In truth, Donkey is a disingenuous morality play, reveling in the sins it ostensibly punishes.
At least things never drag. Blackburn might be cynical, but his direction is crisp. He makes effective use of the claustrophobic setting and with co-writer David Bloom, shows a perverse talent for answering the question: what goes horribly wrong next? Unfortunately, many of the actors are often d
ifficult to distinguish from each other (those pasty-white Britons all look the same I guess) and at times their accents are a challenge to decipher, especially Tom Burke as the wannabe gangster Bluey.Sort of an exploitation version of Titanic, except none of the men look like adolescents, Blackburn’s film is definitely intended for edgier audiences. Compulsively watchable, Donkey might be perfect for midnight movie screenings, but as a main course, will probably leave many feeling hollow. It opens today in New York at the Cinema Village.
