Last week, as I watched Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber, I noticed that the trailers on the rental Blu-Ray were all of titles sharing space at the top of my queue: titles like Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, Kim Ji-woon’s I Saw the Devil, and Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun. All, I quickly realized, had been released by the same studio, Magnet Releasing, whose label I recalled first noticing in front of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson. After some quick Internet searching, I quickly realized what I should have known initially, that Magnet was a subsidiary of indie distributor Magnolia Pictures. The practices of “indie” subsidiaries of studios has become commonplace. That majors like Universal and 20th Century Fox carry specialty labels Focus Features and Fox Searchlight which market to discerning audiences irrespective of whether or not the individual titles released are independently financed or studio-produced has become a defining practice for limited release titles and has, perhaps more than any other factor, obscured the meaning of the term “independent film” (Sony Pictures Classics, which only distributes existing films, is perhaps the only subsidiary arm of a major studio whose releases are actually independent of the system itself). This fact is simply one that has been accepted for quite some time in the narrative of small-scale American (or imported) filmmaking. Especially in the case of Fox Searchlight, whose opening banner distinguishes itself from the major in variation on name only, subsidiaries of the majors can hardly even be argued as “tricking” audiences into [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

By now you’ve already heard about The ABCs of Death – the anthology project being put together by Drafthouse Films, Timpson Films and Magnet. 26 directors, 26 letters of the alphabet, and 26 tales of horror and gore. The complete list of directors includes: Kaare Andrews, Angela Bettis, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Jason Eisener, Bruno Forzani and Helene, Adrian Garcia Bogliao, Xavier Gens, Noburo Iguchi, Thomas Malling, Yoshihiro Nishimura, J.T. Petty, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Simon Rumley, Marcel Sarmiento, Chris Smith, Srdjan Spasojevic, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Nacho Vigalondo, Jake West, Ti West, Ben Wheatley, Adam Wingard, Anders Wulffmorgenthaler, and Yudai Yamaguchi. You no doubt counted that list and saw 26 filmmakers. You also noticed that two of them are a filmmaking pair, which means they still need one more to complete the series. That’s where you come in. This is your chance to have your name next to the guy that made A Serbian Film on a film’s credit sequence. Drafthouse Films is hosting an open short film competition to choose the last director where contestants will choose their own word (starting with the Letter T (my money’s on “Trebuchet”)) and craft a short based on it. Entries will be whittled down to a final 10 by a public voting system, and the winner will be chosen by the directors listed above. There’s no entry fee, and it’s open from now until October 1st at midnight PST. Grab your camera. Get started.

To do a B-movie right, to straddle without crossing the precarious line between hilarity and stupidity, is no small feat. Jason Eisener achieves it with Hobo with a Shotgun, which reaches heights of comic literal-mindedness that the comparatively mild Snakes on a Plane could not. This is, yes, a movie about a hobo with a shotgun, but it’s also an inspired parody of the post-apocalyptic whack-a-mole revenge flick, a film with stronger than expected acting and an ideal dose of energized mania. The immortal Rutger Hauer stars as the titular hobo, who rides the rails into a lawless town populated by seething, ranting maniacs of all stripes. The debauchery is too much to handle – the hobo’s first day in, he’s greeted by a man filming bum fights and an extended set piece in which resident super villain The Drake (Brian Downey) beheads his brother in full view of the public, after which his scantily clad mistress gyrates and devours the fountain of blood. The baddie and his sons (Nick Bateman and Gregory Smith), nightmarish versions of ’80s Tom Cruise, exert a stranglehold over this decaying, crime-ridden megalopolis, where plumes of smoke pour over the streets and gritty, yellowed industrial building mix with seedy punk-populated arcades.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we talk with veteran voice actor Steve Blum and Hobo With a Shotgun director Jason Eisener. Plus, Erin McCarthy from Popular Mechanics and Will Goss from Film.com tackle the Movie News Pop Quiz and maybe, just maybe find some love along the way. By that, I mean a loving concern for summer blockbusters like Harry Potter and Transformers 3. Listen Here: Download This Episode

Why Watch? Because you should think twice before buying that Christmas tree. From the director of Hobo With a Shotgun comes this classic tale of tree-xploitation, shot in pristine 70s style. It’s a bloody affair with some beautiful practical effects and over-the-top everything. We cut them down, we humiliate them with decorations, and now it’s their turn to shove tinsel up our ass. Fair warning: as with any movie where foliage commits wanton acts of violence, there’s a healthy amount of curse words. Also, be on the look out Wednesday for my interview with Treevenge and Hobo With a Shotgun director Jason Eisener on the newest edition of Reject Radio. What Will It Cost? Just 14 minutes of your time. Check out Treevenge for yourself:

The first teaser trailer for Hobo With a Shotgun (that wasn’t the first trailer that the movie was based on), featured a lot of the candy-colored ultra violence that the kids crave these days. Basically, it was awesome. This trailer is awesome in an altogether different way – the way that sees Rutger Hauer soliloquizing in front of a room full of newborns, telling them they’ll grow up to be prostitutes, pimps and pushers. It’s dramatic, deep, and it leads into just a glimpse of the insanity that follows.

The first trailer for Hobo With a Shotgun was, of course, technically a fake trailer. With the first trailer that actually corresponds to a movie coming out, it looks like director Jason Eisener wanted us to see the deeply human side of the hobo. This is perfect for Rutger Hauer, the unnerving master of all things uncomfortable. The look that he gives in this is the human equivalent of chugging a big gulp of curdled milk. Just for fun, we’re putting the trailers up side by side for a comparison. Both battle for bloody supremacy, but only one of them is doing it for the kids.* *Trailers not suitable for children.

It hasn’t even been a week since we reported that Rutger Hauer was going to star in Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun. We’ve already got some teaser footage from the Nova Scotia set.

It is always wonderful to see an enterprising filmmaker go from shorts to feature films, especially if their shorts are among the best of what we’ve seen in recent years. Such is the case with Canadian filmmaker Jason Eisener, whose shorts Hobo with a Shotgun.

Of all the movies that play every year at the Sundance Film Festival, it is the shorts that really don’t get enough love. Thankfully, the ‘dance programmers put some of the better shorts in front of certain movies. This brilliant little short, Treevenge, played to the raucous crowds that lined up to see midnight screenings of the Nazi Zombie flick Dead Snow.