Jason Eisener's "Hobo with a Shotgun" was such a long time coming it's ridiculous. With a movie that's dared to defy all expectations, it's very much a twisted balance between Troma and pure unadulterated Grindhouse madness that has the potential to reach mainstream audiences with a wider theatrical release. With "Grindhouse" flopping, and "Machete" floundering at the box office, "Hobo with a Shotgun" is a breath of fresh air, a movie so utterly filled with mind-blowing grindhouse tropes and a genuinely interesting story that you can almost feel the piss stained theater floor under your feet, while watching what essentially adds up to being a tongue in cheek and darkly disturbing take on the class warfare in America. This is Jason Eisener's America, a world where the battle of rich and poor amounts to trips in to Scumtown USA where we lay our scene. Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino can learn a lot from their protégé Eisener who takes a small budget and turns it in to what could have been a fixture of the seventies.

What helps "Hobo with a Shotgun" is that it adds a coating mysticism and the supernatural to where the world we view is a realm constantly dabbling between reality and pure utter hell. All the while the story never slows down to where it feels tedious and boring. The pacing is perfectly drawn to speed where we can instantly be pulled in to the plight of hobo and his comrades, all of whom are powerless against a ruthless mob boss and his two psychotic sons who rule the streets. Hobo makes friends with the local hooker Abby, a tough ne'er do well whose own troubles leak in to Hobo's life and forms a friendship with him when he goes on a crusade with his 12 gauge at his side. Molly Dunsworth gives a hell of a performance as Abby, the street wise prostitute whose scream rivals that of the greatest scream queens and adds a much needed empathy to the quandary of Hobo and his friends on the street. Eisener adds the grindhouse glitz that he perfected in his original mock trailer for "Hobo," giving the world of these slimy individuals and title character Hobo a demonic tint and neon glow that makes the terrain feel as mucky and grimy as the world's meanest cesspool and leaves the film open to subtle social commentary. Riffing on the gap between the rich and the poor, hobo's journey is less about restoring innocence and more about giving a voice to the impoverished. And when he finally wields his barreled weapon, there's nothing that dares to stop him.

It's about time a director makes a promise to an anxiously awaiting audience and makes due with a film that's ten times better and much more steeped in the grindhouse sub-genre than his predecessors. Better than "Grindhouse," and "Machete" largely, "Hobo with a Shotgun" is a maddening and disturbing twist on class warfare that completely left me trying to find my second wind. I look forward to more from director Jason Eisener.