The British indie horror Donkey Punch was released five years ago to almost universal displeasure.
Craig defends an underrated film…
In 2008, director Olly Blackburn released his first feature film to an almost universally negative response.
Its perhaps no surprise thatThe Daily Mailand its ilk might respond negatively.
It left him sickened to the core.
Great reverse marketing, right?
Shockingly the horror fraternity and the moral majority stood in rare agreement:Donkey Punchwas repellent.
So what was it that they found so objectionable?
Its about what lies in the murky waters beneath…
The plot follows three Leeds girls on vacation in Mallorca.
They meet a group of lads in a bar and hit it off.
The girls neck breaks and she dies instantly.
The group formerly united in a mutual love of partying fractures at once.
Immediately, the boys make their view of the world clear.
Theyre the ones with the big plans in life.
Its by no means as important as their promising careers.
After all, she was just a girl.
Lisa the corpse soon becomes literally a piece of meat and director Blackburn never lets us forget this.
The total and literal objectification of Lisa is the start of how Blackburn reveals the boys characters.
Bluey is the boorish man-child, a particularly grubby page ripped out ofNutsmagazine and brought to life.
Almost everything he says is a sexist gag (ie: Have you ever been to Goa?
Cos you look like a bit of a goer yourself!)
and hes never outgrown the crude, demeaning schoolyard approach to sexual relationships.
Women rest in a confusing place somewhere between a conquest and a joke to him.
Hes the worst of the lot.
His bitter contempt for an entire gender doesnt stop when he delivers the donkey punch.
As the film progresses, he reveals himself to be rotten to the core.
A deep-rooted misogynist and a lying hypocrite to boot.
Its too late to stop them.
You should do it, urges Kim with a bitchy sneer, youre heavier than I am.
It avoids hypocrisy too.
Its worth thinking about because its a symptom of the exact behaviour thatDonkey Punchquestions.
It touches a nerve.
Especially in a young, male, heterosexual audience who apparently find themselves quite offended and disgusted by it.
Why should this be?
(Another great line from the film: Are you fucking gay?!
That they wouldnt get past the name.
Sadly this seems to be exactly what happened, but its a shame.
What dangerous attitudes become insidious within society as a result?
What does and could it all lead to?
Sometimes all you need is to hold up the ugly funhouse mirror to an audience, andDonkey Punchdoes this.
It questions its target demographic and, boy oh boy, did they not like that.
But, really, whats so vile about peace, love and understanding?
