Hobo With A Shotgun (2011)
Dir:Jason Eisner
Starring: Rutger Hauer (The Hitcher)
An unnamed Hobo comes into "Scum" Town and immediately notices this town is not the norm. The entire city is overrun with lowlifes and criminals. Within his first few moments in this strange place he is forced to witness a public execution of sorts, When local crime boss Drake and his two sons Ivan and Slick are preparing to decapitate a member of their own family. Drake and his boys place the mans head in a hollowed out manhole cover and lower him into the ground before wrapping a barbed wire noose around his neck strapped to a car and drive off severing his head. After the citizens witness this the Hobo ends up stumbling across Drake's Headquarters , which is an arcade where the local young junkies hang out and gang members kill their foes in game style executions. Slick decides to take up with a Hooker there and while attempting to kidnap her, The hobo makes the save. After a fight with Slick the Hobo takes the mob boss' son to the police station only to find the cops are on the payroll and our Hobo hero is carved up and thrown out on the street. Where the hooker Abby takes him to her house to clean him up and give him shelter for saving her earlier.
Downtown Hayward?
The Dude Bro's hit the streets
The following morning the hobo heads back out on the streets to make some money to buy a lawnmower he has had his eye on. In the process hooking up with the Bum Fights style film maker who forces the hobo to eat glass for cash. After making enough for the mower he heads to the pawn shop. While there a robbery takes place and the hobo strikes back using a shotgun from the store and after taking out the thugs he pays for the shotgun instead and hits the streets to do some cleaning. Quickly the townsfolk get behind the vigilante hobo and this does not please Drake. Drake sends his boys out to strike fear back into the community, they do so by burning a school bus full of children in the process. After they take over a newscast and tell the citizens that if they do not come together to kill this hobo , Drake and his gang will kills all the towns children and families one by one. Frightened the citizens begin to rally together to get the Hobo Hero.
The residents hit the streets killing any homeless person they see, including mothers and children in the process to find the vigilante. Meanwhile The hobo once again saves Abby from danger as a crooked cop tries to rape her. After shooting the cop the mob of townsfolk give chase but Abby hides him in the remains of the cop claiming the hobo is dead. Back at Abby's the hobo tells her his plans of getting a lawnmower and starting his own landscaping business, but before the two can hit the road to pursue that dream Slick and Ivan are tipped off to the hobo's location and they pay the two a visit. While the Hobo is occupied by fighting off Ivan whom is attacking with ice skates, Abby is being cut with a saw by Slick. The hobo luckily makes the save just in time after electrifying Ivan and strapping his shotgun to Slick's dick and blowing it off before killing him.
As the hobo heads to the hospital to save Abby, Drake is informed of the situation and calls for help in the form of The Plague. The Plague are two heavily armored assassins who look like they could be cheap sci-fi robots crossed with something out of Mad Max. After Abby is saved in the hospital The plague shows up and manage to snag the hobo and take him to Drake's Headquarters.
Scene from the Hobo Holocaust
Vanilla Ice in a cut scene from Cool as Ice
Somehow I don't think this was the kind of Penile implant he was hoping for
This guy looks like an extra from Neon Maniacs
Once Drake has his hands on the hobo he sets up another one of his manhole decapitations for the townsfolk too watch, But Abby now armed to the teeth with weaponry she stole from the pawn shop attempts to make the save. She does manage to take out one of the Plague members before being snagged bu Drake and having her hand fed to a Lawnmower. After a long struggle she manages to free the hobo whom aims to finish off Drake as the police arrive to stop him and then we get a standoff between the Police and the townsfolk who appear to be behind the hobo once again. This leads to our final shootout leaving several dead in the wake.
I couldn't help but laugh at this one.
And the tire from "Rubber" strikes again..?
Hobo With A Shotgun is another one of the newly popular Neo Grindhouse style films made popular by the likes of "Planet Terror" ,"Death Proof", "Machete" and the like. I will say that the premise of this one is pretty true to the original grindhouse format of vigilante films but truly it feels more like a 90's Troma style film more than anything. That being said I don't think that is exactly a bad thing. To me this one was kind of a cross between Street Trash and Falling Down, Which makes for an interesting and entertaining flick. If you enjoy over the top gore , dialog and characters similar to those found in Troma films you will no doubt enjoy this one, But if you are looking for a serious revenge flick like "Falling Down" then look elsewhere.In all honesty I have seen the original trailer for this film which won the Robert Rodriguez Grind House trailer competition and did not feature Rutger Hauer in it, and truthfully I thought that one looked like a more interesting film and stayed closer to the Grind House genre but this film is fun and a breeze to sit through. Watch this one along side Machete and you could have yourself a pretty decent action movie night, that has just enough nostalgia to appeal to Grind house style films and newer action movie fans alike.
Gore:7.5
Nudity:4
Story:7
Characters:7
Overall: 7 out of 10
Pranks A.K.A. The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982)
Dir:Stephen Carpenter (The Kindred/The Power)
During the early 80's horror boom, slashers flooded the market and unfortunately with that craze came the repetitive routine of stalk and slash. This film sadly falls into that pile of slash by numbers genre and unfortunately this one just does not have the goods to make it stand out from the pack.
Pranks starts off with a group of co-ed's that are preparing to help close up a Dorm over the break. Joanne and a few of her friends begin the cleaning when one of the girls has to leave early as her parents come to pick her up, The killing gets started pretty early as The girls parents are offed before the girl is knocked out and run over with her fathers car.Inside the house the rest of the bunch are enjoying some beers before calling it a night and they find that a strange man is spying on them. Apparently this guy is a homeless man that roams the area regularly named John. He continues to be seen lurking around the premises while the group continues the cleaning and discarding of property.The second night the girls once again spot John stalking and they split up to find him and give him a talking to.While the gang is looking through the house Joanne gets trapped in the elevator and after the maintenance man fixes the problem he is killed by a hooded figure with a drill.
" Looks like a scene from a really bad pop music video from the 80's"
"Ah, The 80's when any bar chick could get a movie role for showing off their tits"
Later that night while the group prepares dinner someone sneaks in after stealing some of the food and smashes the table. The girls now scarred alert the police of the strange man who has been stalking them. When they return Joanna hears some odd noises coming from the roof and once again the guys split up. While the guys go searching for the suspect one of the guys Brian is stabbed in a dark stairwell, Meanwhile Joanne tries to call the police but the power is shut off. Craig and Patti head to the kitchen to look for a switch box and Craig is apparently knocked out while Patti is stuffed into a giant crock pot as the power is turned back on. Craig then returns to Joanne with out Patti and explains what had happened and that Patti is missing. Then we get a shot of John roaming the halls with a machete looking scarred and Joanne happens upon him when a chase begins, Though Craig is nowhere to be found. After Joanne hides from John she finds one of her friends bodies and strikes John with a blade as the cat and mouse game continues until Craig returns to fight John off. Joanne finally manages to get the best of John with a spiked Bat , then it is revealed to not much surprise that Craig is in fact the killer. Yet another game of cat and mouse begins this time between the crazed Craig and Joanne until Bobby Lee A sleazy guy who was looking to have some late night drinks with Joanne shows up to attempt to make a save. Craig and Bobby fight it out and Bobby seems to have the upper hand when the police arrive. Craig being a smooth talker is able to convince the officers that Bobby Lee is the man responsible for the attack and Bobby ends up getting shot. While the Officers search the premises for victims, Craig carries Joanne towards a incinerator , and the last thing we see are police discussing their findings as smoke bellows out of the vents outside. Leaving us to wonder what exactly happened as Neither Craig nor Joanne are found by the Police.
"Meth"
The only real redeeming thing about this film is the twist ending and even that can be seen coming from a mile away, The film makes it too obvious that the guy you are supposed to think is the killer is not , putting way too much emphasis on his character. The open ending though is a nice touch and leaves you wondering what exactly happened? As for the rest of the film, as I stated it is pretty standard stuff, Group of kids being stalked by a madman , they split up, and get picked off one by one. this is nothing new to the genre but it can work when done well. I for one do not think that every murder has to be over the top gore and shock but none of the killings in this one were on screen and that really does hurt the film tremendously, I mean you are making a slasher film here there should be at least a few on screen slayings...Just saying. Even for the time this film came out it is really tame and in a time period where the slasher film was reigning supreme, thanks to the VHS boom and drive-in's You needed to do something to make your film stand out and this one just does not. I would however recommend it to retro horror fans and slasher completists because it does have it's moments but they are few and far between. This one is not awful it is just awfully forgettable.
Gore:5
Nudity:2
Story:4
Characters:4
Overall: 4 out of 10
