Robert Boulter, Sian Breckin, Tom Burke

After meeting at a nightclub in a Mediterranean resort, seven young adults decide to continue partying aboard a luxury yacht in the middle of the ocean. But when one of them dies in a freak accident, ...( read more  read more... )the others argue about what to do, which leads to a ruthless fight for survival.

Flixster Users

28% liked it

2,086 ratings

Critics

48% liked it

48 critics

R, 1 hr. 39 min.

Directed by: Oliver Blackburn

Release Date: December 31, 2008

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DVD Release Date: April 7, 2009

Stats: 874 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (874)


  • October 2, 2009
    Donkey Punch abides by all the 'rules' but suffers all the same cliques. Its riskiness is really not that shocking and its idea is really not that original. It steals from a couple of classics (Dead Calm being the main one) but it mainly rips off other bad horror films. This film...( read more) is very much up its own arse and is filmed very badly, its directors motto seems to have been, when we can't create the illusion of suspense, turn the light off and let the audience do the rest. This is a nasty little film with very few redeeming features.
  • July 6, 2009
    Well...It's a movie about a donkey punch gone wrong. But can a donkey punch go right? Pretty much a subject that had to be addressed, but at the same time, not enough to make a movie about. That's why they had to have a lot of people killing each other to make a good story. I...( read more)n the end, it wasn't too bad. Some pretty sexy stuff, and some pretty gross stuff, including propeller chopped face and flare fire to chest...and a deadly donkey punch. Fun for everybody!
  • May 22, 2009
    Severely underrated low budget English horror/thriller! Taking a very modern turn on the horror theme and tackling some very taboo ideas as a group of youngsters decide to live it up on holiday losing all their inhibitions as they drink, take drugs and have sex. During which a se...( read more)x myth tried out leads to one of them dying. As the others battle their own conscience and morals as well as each other to get out of the mess they are in, only ending up in more extreme violence. A good idea for a film that dares to be different. Some may be put off by the sex scene which borders on porn and by the violence. However it does raise some good issues to make a graphic film. Another good entry in recent English horror films. The DVD has quite a few interviews with the cast, director both after and during the making of. Along with some deleted scenes and commentaries.
  • April 11, 2009
    Aside from surprisingly graphic nudity and the entitled act, this is a fairly predictable suspense thriller, solid if unexciting.
  • April 11, 2009
    Stop me if you've heard this one before...

    A group of beautiful young people are vacationing in 'paradise' and partaking of various illegalities and sins of the flesh. All the obligatory characters are present: the scantily clad blonde bombshell, the brutish embodiment of machi...( read more)smo, the shy and sensitive male, and (of course) the 'smart girl' who was reluctant to be there in the first place and distances herself from the debauchery so that she can represent the virtues of morality and moderation. Suddenly, all hell breaks loose and, through a series of violent acts, the cast is whittled down until [SPOILER ALERT!] only the smart girl is left standing.

    Donkey Punch is a well crafted, well cast, unoriginal piece of predicable fluff. Don't waste your time.
  • October 22, 2009
    After finding out what a Donkey Punch was before the film i never wanted to watch it but my friends kept on telling me that it wasn't so bad in the film so i gave in and watched it. They were right and it isn't so bad in the film. It actually had quite a decent plot too.
  • October 4, 2009
    Donkey Punch is so terrible, I don't know where to begin. Three stupid young ladies on vacation meet a bunch of guys who have access to a luxury yacht. They go to the middle of the ocean to continue partying. They do drugs, have orgy sex and then one of the women get 'donkey punc...( read more)hed' and dies. Then one by one all they kill each other and one lives at the end. First of all the audio is so terrible is sounded like the actors were mumbling. Then the sex scene was very graphic and the same with the blood and gore. I give it half a star because of one scene when the men were throwing the first dead woman into the ocean, her body suddenly came back up and that was scary. Then ending was so predictable. Don't recommend this one.
  • September 14, 2009
    Wasn't that bad, but wasn't great either.
  • September 12, 2009
    A lot better than I thought it was going to be. I went into watching this film pessimistic of how much I would enjoy it. However I was relatively surprised. It had good moments of tensions and also a good amount of gore for a horror, but not too much as some horrors can tend to h...( read more)ave. The acting was pretty solid throughout, and perhaps after a second time of watching I might be generous and give it 4 stars instead of the 3 and a half I have given it.
  • September 7, 2009
    I mean, come on, it revolves around a Donkey Punch gone wrong. It couldn't be THAT bad.

Critic Reviews


February 5, 2009
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

It's Dead Calm meets Very Bad Things, with English accents. full review

January 29, 2009
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

Anyone looking for a stoned and bikinied update of L'Avventura, Purple Noon, Dead Calm, or other boat-bound chillers will have to settle for The Real World: Death Yacht. full review

January 27, 2009
Abbie Bernstein, iF Magazine

British thriller about seven college-age Britons in Spain who come together for an afternoon of flirting and wind up having a night of sex, paranoia and murder full review

January 26, 2009
Kurt Loder, MTV

The ending is never much in doubt. Getting to it, however, involves a slightly better-than-usual assortment of cheap, harrowing thrills. full review

January 23, 2009
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

It's got enough formulaic flair to make it a guilty-pleasure cousin of seaborne nailbiters Knife in the Water and Dead Calm. full review

January 22, 2009
Chris Cabin, Filmcritic.com

nothing could be as good as the film's title full review

January 22, 2009
Kate Ward, Entertainment Weekly

The claustrophobic open-water setting might have worked but for the uncomfortably explicit sex scene and flashy gore. In fact, this predictable film wouldn't be effective anywhere outside a DARE program. full review

January 22, 2009
Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com

What should've been a rowdy suspense piece that basks in the smirking idiocy of sexual myths and playground bedroom boasting is actually a toothless horror throwaway made on the cheap and elongated fa... full review

January 21, 2009
Frank Lovece, Film Journal International

Good little calling-card movie from a first-time feature director: a violent psychological study of seven randy young Brits on a borrowed yacht, an accidental death during rough sex, and the fallout t... full review

January 16, 2009
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

So aware of genre conventions, manipulations, and symbolism that it functions more like an intellectualized primer than an actual terrifying experience. full review

View more Donkey Punch reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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