Regular EW readers will know that I’m a huge fan of the utterly berserk new movie Hobo With a Shotgun, a homage to low-budget ’80s action movies in which Rutger Hauer stars as a hobo with a handgun. (I jest, of course, at least with regard to his character’s choice in weaponry). Alas, the film isn’t available on VOD until April 1 and won’t hit cinemas until May 6. Oh, laws of space and time, how you mock us!
The good news is that you can watch (right now!) the equally crazed Treevenge, a short film director Jason Eisener made a couple of years back to drum up interest in a feature-length movie after his original Hobo clip won a Grindhouse-related fake trailer contest. “Treevenge is what helped sell the feature film to the financial backers,” Eisener told me recently. “All we’d done before, that people had really seen, was the two-minute fake trailer. It didn’t show we could handle narrative. It didn’t show how were were going to handle violence, the comedy, in Hobo.”
Treevenge, on the other hand, very much shows Eisener’s take on both comedy and, notably, violence. While the first half of the film is a Yuletide tale told from the perspective of Christmas trees — it’s sort of a Schindler’s List for conifers — the second finds the foliage wreaking an extremely bloody revenge. I could list the reasons why the result is NSFW but frankly I don’t want to be working all weekend. I’ve also embedded the “real” and really gory Hobo trailer.
Consider yourself warned!
More from EW.com:
‘Hobo With a Shotgun’: Check out the new, NSFW poster
‘Hobo With a Shotgun’ is now a movie with an awesome poster
Amazing. The violence is so over-the-top of Treevenge that by the end of it, it felt like it was about to lose all its impact. Then, that final punch to the gut! Wow! I’ll think twice before I buy a “baby” Christmas tree next year.
Come up to Canada – Hobo is already playing up here!
I actually wanted to see Hobo… until I watched Treevenge. It’s a fine line between being campy and being stupid. Eisener doesn’t seem to have the talent to tell the difference.
Hobo with a Shotgun is not like Treevenge. Without seeing all of Eisner’s work, which isn’t much, it’s too early to judge his talent.
@Shelby Have you never heard of grindhouse movies? Hobo With a Shotgun is brilliant. I think Tarantino would love it.
Just saw Hobo over the weekend.. this is going to be a cult hit without a doubt.