Kim (Jaime Winstone), Tammi (Nichola Burley) and Lisa (Sian Breckin) are best friends on a girl’s weekend in Mallorca, away from grey Leeds. Feisty Kim and carefree Lisa are determined to party and distract Tammi from an ex-boyfriend back home. They hit the town, giggling, dancing and flirting, they’re up for fun and maybe a little bit of trouble too, and find both with three middle-class London boys: smooth operator Marcus (Jay Taylor), bad boy Bluey (Tom Burke) and fresh-faced Josh (Julian Morris).
They hit it off instantly and, while sipping stolen champagne on the beach, the boys brag about the luxury yacht they are crewing on for the summer, and lure the girls back to the boat for sunset tunes and bubbly. Despite Tammi’s hesitation, Kim and Lisa are keen to party and Lisa finally coaxes Tammi onboard, but only after they’ve spotted the rather lovely Sean (Robert Boulter) who’d stayed behind on the boat while the boys were bar-hopping.
Josh gives the girls the grand tour and they are suitably impressed. Bluey jumps on the DJ decks and Sean, who turns out to be Josh’s older brother, shows his sensible nature demanding Bluey turn the music down. Marcus decides they should head out to sea where noise won’t be a problem.
The scene is idyllic. The sun is shining, the ocean is crystal blue and Bluey, (wannabe rude-boy, drug-dealer and DJ) can pump the music as loud as he wants, because there’s no one around for miles.
Bluey distributes some pills and, while they take a dip in the sparkling water, talk turns sexual. To get a reaction, Bluey explains the meaning of the phrase “donkey punch” to the shocked group and an embarrassed Josh, who’d claimed he’d mastered it.
As the ecstasy kicks in, the girls and guys begin to pair up. Bluey and Marcus decide to take the action below deck, leading Kim and Lisa into the master bedroom, while Josh scampers after them to watch. The video camera comes out and the ‘fun’ starts. While Tammi and Sean talk about deep and meaningful relationships above deck, downstairs things quickly become raunchy and out of control. Bluey is clearly an instigator and Lisa is open to experimentation. Stoked by drugs, the masculine sexual bravado is taken one step too far, when suddenly a game of dare has become a horrific fatal accident, and Lisa is dead.
Forced to straighten up and think on their feet, rash decisions are made and the girls see the boys veer swiftly from charming to cold and calculating as they see their comfy middle-class futures disappearing before their eyes. The boys turn against the girls and against each other as drug-fuelled paranoia sets in and the true nature of each character comes to the fore. Trying first manipulation and then brute force the boys try to get the girls to agree they’ll tell the police Lisa just fell overboard. While only Sean is left with some empathy for the horrific situation, in order to protect his brother he agrees to throw the body overboard. But, as the girls desperately struggle to outwit the boys, frayed nerves and intense paranoia make their vulnerability glaringly obvious.
Striking for its sparseness, Donkey Punch centres on the three elements; the characters, the boat and the ocean. --© Magnet/Magnolia
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