Hobo With A Shotgun Review

• 10th Aug 2011

“Dirty…scruffy…naughty” is how Rutger Hauer chose to describe Hobo with a Shotgun. If anything, he was being a little restrained. As an action flick in the exploitation tradition and feature-length film born of the winning trailer in Robert Rodriguez’ SXSW Grindhouse competition, it’s fair to say it was never going to be subtle. In fact, writer/director Jason Eisener has come up with something as gory, silly and crass as you could hope.

Hauer’s titular hobo is a grizzled old guy who dreams of starting a lawn mowing business. Unfortunately this dream is destroyed when he stumbles into a corrupt town where evil rules in the form of The Drake and his two sick sons. In coming to the defence of a young prostitute, he is dragged into the violence and turns vigilante, becoming the Hobo with a Shotgun. Hauer is rather commanding as the Hobo, with enough softness to make him just shy of likable. Molly Dunsworth, as Abby (the prostitute) does surprisingly well, as buckets of blood and gore, as well as the traditionally ridiculous dialogue, are thrown her way. Extra weirdness is hurled into the mix in the form of The Plague, armoured demon creatures with tentacled pets. All in all, there is enough carnage and slaughter to keep anyone happy and while it may not be the most complicated of plots, it certainly is fun to watch.

The DVD has two sets of commentary, the first from Hauer and Eisener, and the second from Eisener, friends Rob Cotterill and John Davies (who also have writing credits) as well as the strangely enigmatic David Brunt, the first time actor who played the Hobo in the original Grindhouse trailer. It also includes a ‘making of’ that shows just how excited Eisener and his Hobo cronies were about making their film; all that stoner geekiness is quite endearing. There is also an alternate ending that  has a 30 second segment where Abby has to ‘join’ the demonic Plague, which encompasses a nice nod to Rodriguez’ Cherry in Grindhouse. Along with some deleted scenes, the extras form a nice set of additions to the film.

Hannah Turner