Tusk: Review

(Under the TUSKan Moon)

Tusk, the latest film from Kevin Smith is his journey into horror, and with any Kevin Smith film it has his own bold take on the genre. Tusk is about Wallace Bryton, Justin Long, (Dodgeball) going to Canada for the Podcast he and his friend Teddy, Haley Joel Osment, (I see dead people) run called the Not-See Party. Their main focus is on raunchy internet videos where they riff and make fun of the internet sensation of the day. When he arrives he finds that the man is dead and he needs to find someone to interview for his show. While in the bathroom he finds a letter posted on the bathroom wall about a man asking for anyone to come to his house to listen about his adventures through life. Wallace takes this chance to interview him and finds him.

When arriving to the secluded house he meets Howard Howe, Michael Parks, (Django Unchained) and he tells him of some of his stories while they drink tea. What Wallace doesn't know is that Howe spiked his tea which knocks him out. When he awakes he is disoriented, and missing a leg. Howe tells Wallace that his best friend that saved his life decades ago was a Walrus. And in horror fashion to rekindle that man on walrus love, Howe turns Wallace into a Walrus.

This is where the films starts to lose momentum.  Smith does not know what he wants to do with the film. It keeps shifting between comedy to horror and it is not able to do both at the same time. Michael Parks gives an electric performance as the villain and he can handle all of Kevin Smith's verbose language. Justin Long also does a good job at playing the douche bag podcast host and he thinks every word he utters is comedy gold. But together they don't mesh well. This film tries to be like a comedic version of The Human Centipede but with a human/walrus hybrid.

Teddy and Wallace's girlfriend Ally, Genesis Rodriguez (Upcoming Big Hero 6),  began to search 
from where he goes missing, but even their story line isn't that strong to keep the film going. Also the big reveal which is the linchpin for this film after Wallace's transformation tries to be serious and comes off as comical.

(You know what, nope. I'm out)

Kevin Smith also did the film Red State and with that he had proven that he can create wonderful tension, but this film does not even showcase any of those skills he gained. Tusk tries too hard to become a cult film and tries to be so bad that its good. But when you try to do that it just flops completely. I give this film 2 mustachioed Justin Long's out of 5.