Directed by Jason Eisener
Starring Rutger Hauer, Brian Downey
Like Machete, Jason Eisener’s homage to exploitation started life as a fake trailer for Tarantino and Rodriguez’ Grindhouse.
Expanding a knowing two-minute fanboy gag into a knowing 90-minute fanboy gag could have been disastrously smug, but for one thing.
he movie stars 67-year-old Rutger Hauer, giving a performance that will thrill all who cherish The Hitcher, and remind us what a great screen presence he can be.
Rutger is a quiet soul, drifting into town with dreams of saving enough money to buy a lawnmower.
But when he realises the place is filled with abusive scum run by a sadistic tycoon (Brian Downey), he buys a shotgun instead, and kills everyone.
Along the way, this involves a kiddie-fiddling Santa, topless women with baseball bats and a giant octopus.
All the more remarkable, then, that, blasting through the shlock and scuzz, Hauer manages to be weirdly, grandly, moving.
His best since the Guinness ads.
Damien Love