Sundance 2011: Hobo With a Shotgun premieres to 'rowdy' crowd

One of Sundance's most anticipated films premiered last night at an enthusiastic midnight screening that writer/director Jason Eisener proclaimed would 'definitely get rowdy'.

The Nova Scotia native was given a hero's welcome after the success of his short Treevenge two years ago in Park City, and rewarded fans by giving away Hobo With A Shotgun beanie hats.

"I hope to hear bottles dropping in this theatre," Eisener told the hopped-up crowd, recalling that the last time he was in Sundance he saw a fight break out when audiences couldn't get into a screening.

"I'm hoping for kinda the same. Let's tear this place apart!"

But Eisener was equally aware that not everyone would like his violent, gross-out grindhouse feature about a hobo (Rutger Hauer) turning vigilante in a post-apocalyptic world.

"My Mom is in the audience...'Mom, please hold off scolding me til after the screening!'

Mom may have been on the warpath 90 minutes later after watching a series of gross-out offings (death by dodgem, disembowelling, digger, hanging, octopus) plus the torching of a schoolbus full of kids.

Still, Mrs Eisener might have enjoyed the cinematography. "It's beautifully filmed," Rutger Hauer assured Total Film in the pre-screening green room.