The horror anthology sequel V/H/S/2 is a mixed bag, both in terms of the horror shorts it presents and the identity the franchise is trying to acquire.  Arriving a year after its predecessor, it’s clear that V/H/S/2 is meant to be the first of what should be an ongoing series where fan-favorite indie directors step behind the camera to deliver a horror short.  The sequel attempts to reduce the flabbier aspects of the original, but it also feels more standardized and therefore less exciting.  Additionally, two of the four shorts come across as underdeveloped or rushed.  But the ones that work are worth the price of admission, and make the strongest case for the existence of a V/H/S franchise.

In preparation for its debut at Sundance 2013, a new teaser trailer has gone online for horror anthology sequel S-VHS.  Much like S-VHS is an improved version of VHS tapes, S-VHS hopes to outdo its predecessor with sequences directed by Jason Eisener (Hobo With A Shotgun), Gareth Huw Evans (The Raid: Redemption) and Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre), Edúardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale of Blair Witch Project and Adam Wingard (You’re Next), plus a segment from You’re Next writer Simon Barrett.  The new trailer doesn’t do much more than tease and beyond the footage of a young girl’s birthday party which gets violently interrupted, it’s hard to separate any substance out of the flashes of footage that follow.  S-VHS premieres at Sundance 2013 on January 19th.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer for yourself.

If Halloween’s got you hankering for another horror anthology, you’ll be pleased to hear about the gaggle of directors attached for V/H/S 2.  Chief among them are Gareth Evans (The Raid) and Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project, Lovely Molly).  The duo will be co-writing and co-directing different segments of the second installment of this year’s found-footage collection of horror shorts.  Also joining the directing team will be Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun), Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre) and Sanchez’s producing partner, Gregg Hale.  Hit the jump for more on V/H/S 2.  

Drafthouse Films is teaming with Timpson Films, Magnet Releasing, and 26 filmmakers to produce the horror anthology The ABCs of Death.  Each director will be assigned one letter of the alphabet to turn into a short film.  Some of the more notable talent involved Jason Eisener (Hobo With a Shotgun), Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes), Ti West (The House of the Devil), and Srdjan Sapsojevic (A Serbian Film).  The remaining confirmed are Angela Bettis, Ben Wheatley, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Bruno Forzani and Héléne Cattet, Gadi Harel, Thomas Malling, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Simon Rumley, Tak Sakaguchi and Yuji Shimomura, Marcel Sarmiento, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Jake West and Adam Wingard.  The plan is to fill one slot with the winner of a worldwide contest, reminiscent of how Eisener got his start as an amateur filmmaker who landed Hobo With a Shotgun in the fake trailers section of Grindhouse.

Production is scheduled for this June.  The plan is to complete filming exactly 6 months, 6 weeks, and 6 days later in January 2012.  Read quotes from the producers after the jump.

[This review is a reprint of my review that ran during this year's Sundance Film Festival.  Hobo with a Shotgun blasts its way into US theaters this weekend.]

Sometimes, being insane in your filmmaking isn’t enough.  To make something special, a filmmaker requires a spark of creativity to light the flames of a madness explosion.  Hobo with a Shotgun is a Hiroshima of creative insanity.  Director Jason Eisener has not only paid homage to 70s exploitation films, he’s made a film that could easily have stood amongst it ranks.  Every time you think the movie can’t become any more crazy, any more grotesque, or any more disgusting, it takes out its penis and starts masturbating in public while raving about how cans of Progresso soup are running a shadow government.

This weekend cinemagoers will be treated to an absurdly entertaining 86-minute blood-soaked love letter to exploitation sleaze called Hobo With A Shotgun. Filled with severed limbs, endangered children, empowered hookers, super-powered thugs, and a grizzled lawn care obsessed Rutger Hauer, the film grabs you by the throat and demands that you enjoy the guiltiest of cinematic pleasures. Such a batshit insane film suggests that it comes from an equally insane filmmaker, but Collider got a chance to chat with Hobo’s sweetly low key director Jason Eisener and discovered that the movie thankfully comes from his lifelong obsession with dark n’ dirty genre movies and not his own damaged psyche.

Amongst other things, the director discussed his VHS-fueled youth, the experience of working with childhood hero Rutger Hauer, and how a two-minute fake trailer made for YouTube led to his feature-length directorial debut via Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse. Hit the jump for all the gory details.

Hobo with a Shotgun is an absolute blast if you like vicious, cartoony violence.  The film will be available on demand starting tomorrow and Magnet has released a new red-band trailer to remind folks.  If you’ve already watched the first red-band trailer, I think you’ve already seen enough.  This new trailer has a lot of new footage and part of the fun in seeing the movie is not knowing how much crazier it’s going to get.

However, I can understand wanting to see as much of this movie as soon as possible, so you can check out the trailer after the jump.  Hobo with a Shotgun premieres tomorrow on VOD, iTunes, and Amazon.com.  It shoots into theaters on May 6th. Click here to check out my review.

Hobo with a Shotgun was one of my favorite movies at Sundance and I’m jazzed that the rest of the country is going to have the chance to see it in a little less than a month.  The film is scheduled to play at the SXSW Film Festival and then it will be available via VOD, iTunes, Xbox Marketplace, PlayStation Network, and Amazon.com on April 1st.  In advance of the film’s release, Mondo has released a grisly poster designed by Jeff Procter that lets people in your home know “Yes, I’m insane.” (I’ve kept the most disgusting part of the poster off the main page simply because it’s really gross and I don’t want to look at it for the rest of the day).

Hit the jump to check out the poster, which will be available for sale at SXSW. Any remaining prints will be put up for sale on Mondo’s official site at a later date.  Also after the jump, you’ll find details on a cool contest for fans who want to get their own grindhouse-style trailer on the DVD.

UPDATE: We just received a press release confirming Mondo’s release of a Hobo with a Shotgun mobile game to be available “soon” in the Apple App Store. Hit the jump to check out the full press release, which includes info on the game’s upcoming SXSW panel, as well as a trailer for the game.

Sometimes, being insane in your filmmaking isn’t enough.  To make something special, a filmmaker requires a spark of creativity to light the flames of a madness explosion.  Hobo with a Shotgun is a Hiroshima of creative insanity.  Director Jason Eisener has not only paid homage to 70s exploitation films, he’s made a film that could easily have stood amongst it ranks.  Every time you think the movie can’t become any more crazy, any more grotesque, or any more disgusting, it takes out its penis and starts masturbating in public while raving about how cans of Progresso soup are running a shadow government.

The unrated trailer for Hobo with a Shotgun has gone online and it is awesomely work-unfriendly.  Starring the great Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) as (you guessed it) a homeless man wielding a shotgun, the film has an unsettling and gritty tone that screams B-movie excellence (although I doubt it will help squash the fears of hobophobes).  Honestly, if the film was simply a 90-minute loop of the painfully bleak speech Hauer delivers in the trailer, I’d still pay to see it.

Hobo is the first feature film from director and co-writer Jason Eisener and is the second feature to be made of the faux trailers attached to Grindhouse (of which Robert Rodriguez’s Machete is the first).  [Correction: A reader has astutely pointed out that the trailer for Hobo with a Shotgun was not attached to Grindhouse. Instead, it was the winner of a 2007 contest held at SXSW which asked filmmakers to submit faux trailers akin to the ones attached to Grindhouse.] To check out the gloriously creepy trailer for yourself, hit the jump .

More good news Grindhouse fans! As we reported on Friday, the spin off based on one of the faux movie trailers in Grindhouse, Machete has a release date set for Labor Day weekend.  Well, if the blood Machete spills won’t be enough to hold you over for very long, you can expect another Grindhouse gem to follow shortly….Hobo with a Shotgun.

For those of you that don’t know, Hobo with a Shotgun, was a brilliant faux trailer created by Nova Scotia director, Jason Eisener for Robert Rodriguez’s SXSW Grindhouse trailer contest in 2007.  Yesterday, Ain’t It Cool News reported that the full length feature film starts shooting today and they also revealed  Rutger Hauer has been cast as the Hobo!  Hit the jump for the original trailer: