Tusk (2014) [Blu-ray]
Comedy | Drama | Horror

Tagline: A truly transformative tale

From writer/director Kevin Smith comes this wickedly funny modern-day monster movie that will hold you in terror as it keeps you in stitches. A podcaster (Justin Long) looking for a juicy story is plunged into a bloodcurdling nightmare after he travels to the backwoods of Canada and meets an eccentric recluse (Michael Parks) with a lifetime of adventures - and a disturbing fondness for walruses.

Storyline: When podcaster Wallace travels to Canada to interview someone, he winds up meeting a strange man named Howe who has many stories to tell about his past life during his interview. Wallace wakes up the next day finding out Howe isn't the person he thought he was. Howe has plans to surgically and mentally turn Wallace into a walrus.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 25, 2014 --
Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

Native German speakers may recognize that as the opening line of Franz Kafka's disturbing story The Metamorphosis. It's an iconic opening, but one that has given translators fits since the novella first appeared in 1915. Many English translators have agreed on the first section of the sentence, which is typically translated as:
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into—

But it's what comes after that "into" that has been variously translated as "an insect," "a gigantic beetle," or the somewhat more generic "vermin," "monstrous vermin" or even "horrible vermin." The salient point is, of course, that hapless Gregor Samsa awakens one morning to find himself transmogrified into something he doesn't recognize. There's a certain passive quality to the announcement of Gregor's transformation and indeed Kafka never really explains what or why what happened, happened. Kevin Smith is certainly no Franz Kafka (for better and/or worse), and while his latest film Tusk more or less goes the Metamorphosis route, it's via a decidedly mundane gambit involving a kind of modern day take on the hoary horror film trope of the mad scientist.

Kevin Smith's filmography is a rather odd lot, one where a sort of proto-indie spirit is often subsumed by rather portentous subtexts. Smith isn't afraid to invest his films with anarchic elements which at times baffle, at other times, fascinate. A repeated mantra of sorts heard over and over in some of the featurettes included on this Blu-ray offers a somewhat defiant "this is a f***in' horror movie" to anyone who might question Smith's genre bashing proclivities. Of course Smith has previously trafficked in horror, or at least quasi-horror, with the interesting if flawed Red State. And that's the thing about Smith's oeuvre — it's almost invariably interesting even when elements don't completely gel.

Smith has already taken on such formidable institutions as the Catholic Church (Dogma), so something as relatively mundane as the internet shouldn't provide much challenge for him. Tusk owes its genesis to the internet in a couple of ways. Smith and his partner Scott Mosier worked up a treatment of sorts for a patently bizarre online ad they had spied where a guy was offering free room and board in exchange for the renter dressing up like a walrus for a couple of hours a day. In turn, they then broadcast their treatment on their own podcast. Taking this internet frenzy to its logical (?) conclusion, Smith asked his Twitter followers to tweet one of two hashtags, #WalrusYes or #WalrusNo, indicating whether they'd like to see a feature film built around this premise. Guess which one won?

Since Smith offers a rather "in your face" announcement that Tusk is a horror film, it probably goes without saying that the plot does not deal with a man simply dressing up as a walrus to please his landlord. Instead, the film focuses on Wallace Bryton (Justin Long), who with his partner Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment) hosts a podcast rather insouciantly named "The Not-See Party," where they mercilessly skewer videos that have gone viral on—yep, you guessed it, the internet, a la Daniel Tosh and Tosh.0 or (much funnier, in my not so humble opinion) the newer Comedy Central outing @Midnight. Wallace does not suffer internet fools gladly, being more than happy to pummel them without remorse in a juvenile display of supposed superiority.

Wallace flies to Canada to track down a kid whose unfortunate video shows a life altering injury (what—there are no internet idiots in an Askewniverse New Jersey?), a calamity which not so subtly foreshadows something that's going to happen to Wallace himself in a little while. That story lead doesn't actually pan out, however, which is when Tusk finally starts exploiting the walrus angle, when Wallace decides to check out an ad for a renter which promises an unending series of exciting tales, kind of like Scheherezade and A Thousand and One Nights. Wallace is greeted not by a beautiful yarn spinning woman, but by an elderly, seemingly addlepated cripple named Howard Howe (Michael Parks, quickly becoming Smith's go to guy for outré characters). Howe launches into a story of his seafaring days and a somewhat whimsical account of having been saved by a walrus long ago in a boating mishap.

In a kind of riff on ideas seen in previous horror films like Dead of Winter, Wallace becomes a prisoner in the household, and is drugged and then subjected to some gruesome treatment at the hands of Howe. Since the inarguably weird premise of the film is one of its chief, pre-announced calling cards, it's not really a spoiler to reveal that this treatment in turn leads to him being stuffed inside a walrus "outfit" of sorts. Playing out against this squirm inducing arc are backstories for both Wallace and Howard, as well as attempts by Wallace's friends to track him down and figure out what happened to him in Canada, typically presented interstitially between the walrus sequences.

There's no doubt that Tusk has a creepy, even sinister, vibe, but it's also too piecemeal to ever really work up much momentum. The film is perhaps fatally hobbled by what should be its standout horror allure, namely the walrus "suit" itself. While unforgettable in its own peculiar way, the rubber appliance may actually provoke laughter instead of shock, minimizing any latent fear factor that may be simmering. Smith's sense of humor is famously askew (hmm. . .), but he doesn't really seem to be going for laughs in Tusk, a decision that some may find hard to reconcile with the whole walrus angle.

The film does offer yet another fantastic showcase for Parks, who has managed to make his golden years a compendium of sorts of odd, often menacing, characters. Long is fine if kind of bland as Wallace. For all of Smith's insistence that Tusk is an out and out horror film, it never really works up many outright scares, coasting instead on an almost subliminal feeling of dread. Perhaps not unexpectedly, this is a kind of post-modern take on various horror tropes, filtered through Smith's piquant if not always totally focused sense of expression. There's anxiety aplenty in Tusk, but ultimately surprisingly few chills.

He is the walrus, goo-goo-ga-joob. You didn't actually think I was going to make it through this review without something like that coming along, did you? Smith has repeatedly staked out one of the most uniquely individual corners in the annals of contemporary film, and Tusk is certainly no exception. The film's very peculiarity is probably its chief asset, but it's a weirdness that may tend to play better vicariously in terms of reading about it or even listening to people talk about it (like in a podcast) than it does as a cogent film. Parks is once again spectacularly effective in a completely bizarre role. Unfortunately, he's surrounded by a kind of mess, not necessarily the blood, guts and limbs strewn about the film courtesy of Howe's "walrus assembling." Still, for those wanting something mostly (if not completely) different, and certainly for Smith aficionados, Tusk comes Recommended.

[CSW] -2.2- This sophomoric comedy/horror drama will have great appeal to some audiences. It is almost like one big horror-fart joke. The acting was great from a comedic standpoint but the lowbrow humor wasn't that appealing to me. As one person that loved it said "One of the more messed up movies I've seen in a while." Everyone has a story to tell is a theme of the movie and of podcasting in general. On average everyone also farts 17 times a day if you catch my drift. This is one of those crazy movies that will either tickle you or gross you out. Unfortunately there is no predicting in advance witch way anyone will react. All I can say is good luck.
[V4.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


º º