Hobo with a shotgun (2011)

  

(SPOILER ALERT)

Every once in a while there is a film that's so bad it's good. This is one of them. Initially this movie started off as a ‘fake’ trailer with the movie ‘Bitch Slap’. And like Bitch Slap, this is pure grindhouse bliss. The term ‘grindhouse’ refers to a type of movie that was made between the 1960’s and the 1990’s with a large amount sex, violence and often nonsensical plots. Yes, I know this movie was made in 2011 and that means it doesn’t qualify as ‘pure’ grindhouse, but it pays homage to these kind of movies. 

More specifically, the grindhouse vigilante movies from the eighties.

And this one is pretty darn good.

The plot is relatively simple. A nameless hobo arrives in a town called ‘Hope Town’ and is confronted with rampant crime. Upon arriving he also witnesses a horrific execution in the streets by the Drake family (I won’t spoil you the details but it involves a manhole cover). This crime family, consisting of father Drake and his two psychotic sons, is the cause of everything that goes wrong in Hope Town.

Like most B-movies, the antagonists don’t have what you would call a ‘deep character’. They just keep repeating their shallow motives in order to reinforce their evil psyche. Much like a song stuck on replay. They never go beyond the usual “This city needs me” and “I am the greatest, don’t you fuck with me you FUCKING FUCK!”. Yes, a lot of f-words in this movie. The antagonists show psychotic tendencies that only the most disturbed criminals wouldn't reject (like killing your own uncle and using his head as a hood ornament, sawing someone's head of a wood saw, killing with ice skates).

The Drake family runs the city and has everybody in their pocket. Our hobo-hero tries to survive and wants to buy a lawnmower. One evening, he saves a prostitute (called Abby) from certain death by the two Drake sons. She befriends the hobo.

These tender moments allow us to develop a bond with the hobo and Abby. She is his emotional outlet. Abby is like a delicate flower, forced into the dirt of prostitution because of the violent, hopeless and toxic environment. Our hero hopes she becomes a teacher someday.

But the next day, he leaves and wants to go buy the lawnmower. But just as he is inside the store a robbery takes place. 

"I'm gonna sleep in your bloody carcasses tonight!"

Our hero snaps.

He grabs a shotgun from the shelves…                 

And delivers justice to the robbers (shooting them into a bloody pulp) one shell at a time. FUCK YEAH

Our hero continues his killing spree. Like a sick, twisted and demented version of batman (including the gravelly voice), he starts delivering GREAT JUSTICE to a host of perpetrators including: muggers, pimps, snuff-movie directors and a paedophile dressed as Santa (I’m not making this shit up).

Prepare to see a lot of blood everywhere

It all feels so incredibly epic, you almost wish there was a shotgun-equipped hobo in every street, poppin’ heads of every wrongdoer. And just like in every b-movie there is one helluva lot of violence. Buckets of fake blood flow on the set. Most of the time it is so incredibly unrealistic that you’ll probably laugh instead of being shocked (at least I was).

The city rejoices because of the hobo’s killing spree and the evil Drake family feels their power slipping. So the two psychotic sons want to instil a sense of fear in the masses by torching a bus full of schoolchildren. That’s right. Friggin’ school children.

They do this whilst ‘Disco inferno’ (by the Trammps) plays as background music. Evil just got a whole lot groovier.

As I said before: cardboard cutouts when it comes to character development. But that’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s like trying to watch a porno movie for the plot. You don’t do that, right? But at this point you have already seen so much shocking violence that you probably are desensitized  and won’t even bat an eyelid.  

The sons hunt down the hobo and Abby. One of the psychotic sons dies in an amusing way, the other one had a toaster-accident (seeing is believing).

The hobo confronts one of the sons. Yes, he is pointing at that area with his shotgun.

But eventually father Drake captures the hobo and demands that he fights to the death in an epic battle in an arena. Like a sick version of ‘Gladiator’. What happens next contains a lot of WTF?, AWESOME!, and OH GOD WHY. Some keywords: gore,lawnmower blade,gore,manhole cover, noose, gore, gore, hand, blood, gore, shotgun. Have I mentioned gore already?

You do the math.

To wrap it all up, it’s a great movie but take a few precautions before watching:

1. Forget all regular logic

2. Don’t eat before or during the movie (I made this mistake)

3. Embrace the blood and gore (essential)

4. Don’t be easily offended

5. ENJOY YOURSELF!

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See you next week guys!

Tl;dr Hobo with a shotgun cleanses a city of crime, befriends prostitute, ruling crime family gets nervous and captures him to fight in an arena to the death.