Director
Kevin Smith
Cast
Justin Long - Wallace Bryton
Genesis Rodriguez - Ally Leon
Haley Joel Osment - Teddy Craft
Michael Parks - Howard Howe
Johnny Depp - Guy Lapointe
Comic book guru Kevin Smith's famous (or infamous) horror film Tusk isn't necessarily obscure.
I initially wasn't going to share my thoughts on this imaginative horror film, but like all the other times I've said "I wasn't going to..." I'm going to.
This is a film that is not meant for everyone. I suppose that's true for any horror movie, or really any movie of any genre. But Tusk is one film in the horror aisle where this disclaimer needs to be emphasized.
Last August, I wrote a post called Did Tom Six and Rob Zombie Take Horror Too Far? in which I discussed the Dutch horror movie The Human Centipede.
In the post, I said:
While the makeup makes Depp nearly unrecognizable, the rest of his character takes the realism out of the movie. That's odd to say about a movie that centers on a person being surgically mutilated into a walrus. But this movie's tone leans far into realism with the dark...very dark...humor in its premise.
I reluctantly have to give this film credit in that it went beyond the standard norms of SciFi horror films which take grisly scenarios and water them down as far as content goes. Teens are generally the target audience so there has to be a line drawn somewhere, even among slasher flicks. Movie makers can depict a head being severed, or a naked woman being sawed in half, but some lines still can't be crossed. I don't know what those lines are exactly. And quite possibly, neither do movie makers.
The entire purpose behind The Human Centipede seems only to cross lines - to elevate the horror genre to something even more unspeakable than before.
The same can certainly be said of Tusk. However, unlike The Human Centipede, Smith's movie comes from an area of a dark and twisted imagination lies closer to the mental realm where comical and inquisitive thoughts are born, such as "what would happen if someone was surgically transformed into a walrus?"
That's Tusk.
In this movie two friends, Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) and Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment) host the "Not-See Party" podcast in which they search social media for humiliating viral videos for the sake of public mockery and ridicule.
As the movie starts, Bryton and Craft mock a young boy who inadvertently became an internet celebrity for accidentally severing his leg with a katana sword.
Bryton flies to Manitoba, Canada to interview the kid in the viral "Kill Bill Kid" video as it's called.
When he reaches his destination, Bryton learns the young boy committed suicide because of the unwanted fame and global humiliation.
Not wanting to have his trip turn into a waste, he looks for another person to talk to for the podcast.
Bryton soon finds a post on a community billboard advertising a room in their home and free "interesting stories."
Thinking this may be the only opportunity to head back with something worthwhile for the podcast, he calls the number on the flyer, and is invited to the huge estate of Howard Howe (Michael Parks).
When Bryton arrives, Howe- a retired seaman whose confined to a wheelchair - invites him in for some tea.
He tells Bryton about an experience he had with a walrus he dubbed "Mr. Tusk" that rescued him from a shipwreck.
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| Michael Parks and Justin Long in Tusk. |
As he's sharing this interesting story, Bryton passes out thanks to his tea being laced with some kind of sedative.
When he awakens the next morning, he finds that Howe can walk. But that's not the biggest alarm. He also finds himself strapped to a wheelchair and his left leg amputated.
Howe quickly informs Bryton that he's going to surgically transform him into a well constructed form of Mr. Tusk.
When Howe isn't looking, Bryton manages to send a voicemail to his girlfriend, Ally (Genesis Rodriguez) before his maniacal kidnapper knocks him unconscious.
Meanwhile, Ally and Craft fly to Manitoba to find Bryton without knowing where exactly he is.
Howe continues to mutilate and transform Bryton while telling him how he was sexually abused by clergy for years while he was a foster child.
Howe sews together large pieces of human flesh to alter Bryton's appearance, and surgically inserts large tusks made from the tibia bones in his severed legs.
Finally, Howe's victim is a monstrosity in the shape of a walrus - fins, tail, tusks, and all.
Ally and Craft enlist the help of a French Canadian Inspector named Guy Lapointe (Johnny Depp) who, it turns out, has been searching for Howe for years.
He's certain Howe has Bryton, and is just as determined to find him as he's always been.
Lapointe believes Bryton is still alive, but tells Ally and Craft he may not appear as they remember him.
Back at Howe's place, he keeps Bryton in a pool under the house, and forces him to act and think like a walrus.
He also opens up to Bryton, admitting he killed Mr. Tusk and ate him before being rescued. He now lives with the guilt of killing his flippered savior.
So, for the sake of reliving his final moments of joy with Mr. Tusk, Howe has spent 15 years kidnapping victims, surgically transforming them into walrus creatures, and trying to relive the past.
Bryton the walrus has nothing to lose now, so he engages Howe in a fight.
If he's to suffer in human skin sewn to look like a walrus's pelt, he might as well thrown in a serious punch (figuratively speaking).
Tusk is to be taken precisely for the twisted and horrific story it is. I can't say this is a good movie nor can I say it's bad. I can't even say I recommend it.
The grotesqueries are unsettling for sure. And Justin Long's walrus make-up is absolutely impressive and most certainly unforgettable. Well, the entire movie is unforgettable. Once you watch it, you can't take it back. You can't wash it out of your memory. It'll always be that Kevin Smith movie about the guy who's turned into a walrus.
Tusk is Kevin Smith's own demented version of something along the lines of The Human Centipede.
And everyone in this movie, despite the horrid nature of it all, puts in so much effort as though they're all in on one monumental joke.
Michael Parks is impressive as a maniacal old sailor burden with years of guilt for killing his walrus buddy. Despite the ridiculousness of that premise, he plays out the character demented old character well.
Johnny Depp's character, however, grows irritating as he rambles on in distracting, sometimes pointless, dialogue and exposition with his faux French Canadian accent. Guy Lapointe seems like a poor man's version of Peter Seller's Salty Swedish Sea Dog character from Revenge of the Pink Panther.
Tusk is an experience for those with stomachs of iron.
Evidently, the idea for the movie comes from a story Smith told on his weekly podcast, SModcast.
In a particular episode, Smith and his friend and producer, Scott Mosier, spoke of an advertisement found on the British-based classified ads website, gumtree.com.
The ad was supposedly placed on the website by a homeowner looking for a roommate, and willing to provide living space rent free provided the roommate dress like a walrus.
Smith gave his listeners a chance to decide whether he should make such a movie by logging into Twitter and tweeting "#WalrusYes" or "#WalrusNo."
Though the ad turned out to be a prank, the movie is real.
What Smith is trying to accomplish with his movie, I think he succeeded. I doubt he's trying to create something absolutely phenomenal in the genre of horror. Rather, Smith creates one of the darkest, strangest, unforgettable film experiences I and surely others have ever seen. Who can argue Tusk is none of those things?
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