Analysis Of Film Openings: Hobo With A Shotgun and Treevenge

Introduction
Both of these are films directed by Jason Eisener, an new up-and-coming writer-director from Canada, who is currently making a splash in the horror community after his break through in 2007 when he won the Grindhouse fake trailer competition, which led to his trailer playing with the film in Canada along side fake trailers directed by Eli Roth, Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright. After which he gained notoriety from horror audiences with 'Treevenge', the story of when Christmas trees fight back after being chopped down a humiliated by the general populace; it is very funny horror-comedy, that does not skimp out on the blood (it features some very bloody homages to Lucio Fulci).

After which he went on get the reins on his own feature length film, building on the the fake trailer for 'Grindhouse', he created what is probably the bloodiest vigilante film in recent years, that cemented this young talent's place in the horror industry. The film stars Rutger Hauer as the nameless "Hobo", who arrives at "Scum city" with hopes of starting a lawn mowing business, but finds a city awash with corrupt cops, paedophilic Santas and an utterly delirious crime boss who treats the indiscriminate slaughter of the townsfolk as a spectacle. After being subjected to the towns inhumanity for long enough, the eponymous hobo picks up a shotgun and tries to clean up the town the only way he knows how: by blowing criminals to kingdom come!
It's an understatement to say this film lacks subtlety, but it makes up for it in pure bat-crap insanity and endless barrage of quotable one-liners; this film isn't art (though the use of lighting gives an extremely distinctive look that provides a breath of fresh air), but as a exercise in neo-grindhouse trash, this film is fantastic.

Since then he has gone on to direct a few segments in a couple of anthology films that have come out in recent years ('The ABCs Of Death' and 'V/H/S 2'), I have only seen his contribution to 'V/H/S 2', for those unaware in the past few years there has been a revival of interest in VHS collecting and use as a format (Troma have been releasing special editions on the format for a few years now, and many more underground video mixtapes are starting to re-use the format like their '80s and '90s predecessors), and riding that wave was the anthology horror film 'V/H/S', which attempted to throw the audience into the madness of the video underground circa early '90s, whilst in the constraints of a found footage horror genre (even the wrap-around was found footage).

The film itself was a bit hit and miss, though when it worked it really worked. The sequel followed this same formula, and tries to establish a minor mythology that connects both films, though it is fairly subtle. The segments are a mixed bag, with the longest, 'Safe Haven', being the best and the wrap-around being the worst (the ending is just dreadful and wastes all the tension built up throughout the film); though Eisener's segment- 'Slumber Party Alien Abduction'- relied far too heavily on gross out gags for characterisation, and whilst the alien special effects are impressive (along with the use of lighting and sound), the segment provides no real scares, it feels like a collection of cool images linked together by video scratches and digital blur.

He has also directed a few other shorts and has starred in 'Rewind This', a documentary about the impact VHS had on the film industry and VHS collecting; he is currently working on his next feature 'Blatant Violence High', taking inspiration from an old computer game ('Vigilante'), it looks to be a martial arts-esque film whilst carrying forth the aesthetics of 'Hobo'. So, all in all his is becoming a director to watch in the horror genre.

Filmography:
-The Teeth Beneath (2005)
-The Pink Velvet Halloween Burlesque Show! (Short) (2006)
-Hobo With A Shotgun (Short) (2007)
-Treevenge (Short) (2008)
-Hobo With A Shotgun (2011)
-The ABCs Of Death (Segment "Y is for Youngbuck") (2012)
-V/H/S 2 (Segment "Slumber Party Alien Abduction") (2013)
-One Last Dive (Short) (2013)

Analysis Of The Opening Of 'Treevenge' (From 0 to 2:00)
The film opens with longs shots of a woodland occupied with what appears to be christmas trees ( in their natural state), with a soothing soundtrack, that kicks in as the title appears on the screen; the soundtrack itself will be instantly recognisable to the films target audience (horror fans), as it is the theme to the infamous 'Cannibal Holocaust'. This use of intertextuality along with the digital grading of the film (which is synonymous with films made in the 1980s), and the format of the title, this has all been constructed by the director to show the audience that this is a homage/parody of the aforementioned film ('Cannibal Holocaust').

Also the long pans over the woodland, particularly focusing on the trees, could imply that they are important in the story that is about to unfold, providing the audience with an enigma code. The slow pans shift between close ups and long shots as if observing living, feeling people (a point that is built upon later in the short) thus humanising the trees, this allows the audience to sympathise with the trees and provides a sort of normal state, that is later juxtaposed with the outright anarchy that comes when the loggers descend upon them.

It is during one of these long pans that the soundtrack suddenly cuts to a close up of a man entering the frame with what appears to be an axe, this is parallel edited with a very '80s sounding electronic theme, this composition shows the logger and axe in the foreground whilst showing two trees in the background (placed between the gaps), this implies that the logger will chop down the trees (as the connotations of trees and axes are obviously using them to chop trees down).

The shot then moves up the body to the head of the character as he turns around, talking to many loggers off screen; the costume and look of the character is highly stereotypical to the point of caricature, this is after all the director's intension, and this stereotype is hammered into the audience throughout the rest of the opening, as they are exposed to numerous examples of the lumberjack stereotype.

However, they are first shown as faceless figures carrying huge weapons/tools, this is emphesised with the hand-held low angle shot which stresses the size of the chainsaw, this is repeated a few times, with different tools. Accompaning this is further use of an '80s-esque soundtrack, that feels very reminicent of the slasher genre- audience members who make this link will recognise the conventions of said genre and logically work out what will happen next.

This all adds to the suspence the film tries to build up, but the film does recognise the absurdity of the situation that it has created, and allows the audience to laugh at the absurdity of it by showing the baby tree shaking in fear. The audience both feels for the tree and can't help but laugh at now far fetched the wholed situation is-this seems to be the films intention by playing to both the horror audience as well as the comedy one, making itself a comedy-horror in the style of the classic comedy-horror films of old.

The film also stresses the threat the lumberjacks pose in the use of the shots, particularly in the moments prior to the full scale anarchy that is to come, in particular the low angle shot of the ring-leader, which with the clautrophobic framing tells the audience that he is in control. This lines us up for the climax, showing the power inbalance between the two faction-whilst the trees are docile(shown by the smooth pans and soothing soundtrack), the lumberjacks are presented as aggressive and dominant (through the low angle shots, the hand-held style and the body language).

The following sequence of the lumberjacks chopping down the trees is shot in a claustrophobic manner and focuses in detail on the mutilation and desacration of the trees; it tries to get across the hideous nature of the act through use of ("shaky") hand-held camera movement and quick cuts, (the quick cutting technique is reminicent of the hell sequences in 'Event Horizon'), this allows the audience to start to sympathise with the trees (by subconciously comparing the idylic opening with the current situation), allowing for the audience to support what they do in revenge in the final act of the film (as is customary of "revenge" films).

This again is part of the homage to 'Cannibal Holocaust' (though I haven't seen it), and it replicates the opening of that film, and carries the theme of that film through though replacing the tribe with trees, it uses this as a way of creating humour for seasoned horror fans, mainly from the fact that 'Cannibal Holocaust' is regarded as one of the most horrific and disturbing films ever made, and 'Treevenge' takes that concept and twists it to involve Christmas trees, it's so absurd that it is hysterical to those in the know.

Below is the opening to 'Treevenge' and 'Cannibal Holocaust', to show how dead on they got it.





Analysis Of The Opening of 'Hobo With A Shotgun'
The opening carries forth Eisener's motif of using soundtracks from horror films from the '70s and '80s (from what I have heard this one is from a 1970 German horror 'Mark Of The Devil') with a fair amount of digital grading, though for this film it is trying to emulate the sort of grindhouse trash that was being made in the '70s and '80s.

The film introduces us to the protagonist as he is riding the rails, we instantly know that he is the star of the film by the use of lighting that encapsulates him in every shot, this almost suggests he is a "ray of sunshine" and it invokes Christian iconography (in most images Christ and other such holy people are depicted with halos of light around them) this serves as a universal code that this "hobo" is the protagonist and is "good". It also helps that the actor playing the "hobo" is the film's main star, Rutger Hauer.

The countryside images gives us a sort of idylic image of the world around this character and what he hopes for, this gives the audience an introduction to the world of the "hobo", which allows (like 'Treevenge' does) for it all to be juxtaposed with the world he encounters in "Scum Town", which is alluded to at the end of the clip, changing the tone for the viewer.

This also makes the viewer recognise that in the world of the "hobo" the debauchery that is on display in "Scum Town" is not normal, so in that respects the opening provides a normal level for which the rest of the movie can be measured against, putting the audience on the side of the "hobo".

The opening sequence is filled with optimism that is soon quashed once the audience and the "hobo" are exposed to it, so in those regards the opening intensionally puts the audience on the back foot, and subverts their expectations excellently.