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Donkey Punch

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Why you can trust SCMP
Mathew Scott

Donkey Punch Robert Boulter, Sian Breckin, Tom Burke, Nichola Burley Director: Olly Blackburn

It was a clever piece of marketing to name this film after a sex act that, like 'tea-bagging', we all pretend to know all about, even when we don't. Or don't really want to.

And it worked. This low-budget British thriller, made in just a few days, was apparently the talk of the last Sundance film festival and was snapped up by film distributors the world over.

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More fool them. For once the heart-pounding frenzy of drug-taking and below-deck fiddlings are over, director Olly Blackburn is left with nothing out of the ordinary.

The premise - fit young things gather on a luxury yacht for a bit of fun, but what to do when it all goes way too far? - shows promise. But a lack of any depth in character - in fact you end up hating them all - means Blackburn is forced to rely on sudden bursts of violence to maintain any interest at all.

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Simple techniques often give us the biggest frights - and low-budget high-seas thrillers such as Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm (1989) did it all so much better by remaining relatively low key.

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