When the Tarantino/Rodriguez collaboration Grindhouse was released, it contained four fake trailers for other exploitation movies. This promted a worldwide competition for amateur film-makers to invent, shoot and submit fake trailers of their own, with the winner getting to make a full length feature version. The winner was director Jason Eisener and the film was Hobo With A Shotgun.
Starring the enduringly talented Rutger Hauer, Hobo The Movie is not only fabulously entertaining, but it also beats the masters at their own game. Grindhouse co-director Robert Rodriguez went on to adapt one of his fake trailers into a full-length Machete movie, but I think Hobo bests him in the exploitation stakes. Hobo might not have the same budget (it's raw, small scale and cheap as hell) or the babes (Molly Dunsworth is no substitute for Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan or Jessica Alba) or movie stars (Rutger substituting DeNiro, Trejo, Seagal and company) but it's leaner, more focused story, equally inventive iconography, witty banter and unhinged, uninhibited gore, violence and black humour tip this more in Hobo's favor.
If you're going to do an exploitation film that goes against the grain of mainstream cinema then I want my imagery extreme and I want it coming thick and fast. Convoluted story has no place here. Keep it simple. Keep it cool and keep it shocking. Hobo With A Shotgun might very well be Jason Eisener's Evil Dead. If so his next project will be anticipated greatly.
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