This exploitation flick, which is noisy, bloody, and aggressively decadent… features a homeless alcoholic ‘cleaning up’ a ridiculously corrupt American town… and it draws inspiration from a fake trailer that was part of Grindhouse, a 2007 homage to all things brutal and sleazy by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.
It aims to be a parody of vigilante films that range from the sublime (Taxi Driver) to the absurd (Death Wish 3) with a flair for being so bad, it’s good. However, like many others of its genre, it unfortunately lands on the side of just being bad.
The idea of enjoyment here involves scenes like a girl having all her fingers severed by a lawnmower, or a gangster tearing off a man’s head while a bikini-clad woman dances wildly in the resulting bloodbath.
The intention behind Hobo With A Shotgun is to charm its fanboy audience by decapitating, eviscerating, and mutilating as many individuals as savagely as possible. The performances are universally terrible.
Rutger Hauer, once known for his role in films like Blade Runner, portrays the titular character. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Director Jason Eisener endeavors to render the campy carnage as ugly, garish, and juvenile as one can imagine.
Naturally, there is a demographic that enjoys this type of dismal trash, and plenty of online trolls ready to attack any critic brave enough to label it as such.
by Helena Bryanlith