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Kevin Smith 's style of comedy is too unfocused to pull off a cinematic prank like "Tusk," a horror-comedy about a walrus-monster. Had Smith been more disciplined, the film's deliberately absurd plot twists might have been more alienating, and funny. But even a Kevin Smith apologist like myself will readily admit that "discipline" and "Kevin Smith" do not belong in the same sentence. "Tusk" is bearable thanks in no small part to its game cast, particularly character actor Michael Parks 's Vincent Price-esque baddy. And yes, Smith does get in a few good scares, especially during the movie's creature scenes. But as it is, "Tusk"'s sophomoric gag is rarely as funny or creepy as it could have been. "Tusk" is what you'd get if you wrote a comedy inspired by both " The Human Centipede " and Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. Shock jock podcaster Wallace Bryton ( Justin Long ) visits Manitoba to interview "The Kill Bill Kid," a YouTube star that gets famous after a video of him cutting his own leg off goes viral. But fate intervenes, and Wallace pursues another seemingly easy target: Howard Howe (Michael Parks), a paralyzed adventurer with a yen for flippered marine mammals. Unfortunately for Wallace, a selfish schlub who somehow becomes more annoying every time he talks, Howe's not as helpless as he seems. This leaves Wallace's girlfriend Ally ( Genesis Rodriguez ) and co-host/best friend Teddy ( Haley Joel Osment ) to rescue Wallace from Howe. A younger Smith might have sympathized with Wallace, but the current Smith really goes after him for being as hatefully jaded as, uh, himself (Wallace is clearly a stand-in for Smith as "Tusk" originated from Smith's Smodcast podcast). Through a series of flashbacks, Smith makes Wallace cartoonishly obnoxious, especially when Ally whines to Wallace about how much he's changed, and that she "[misses] the old Wallace." These scenes are especially tedious since Smith inevitably loses interest in taunting Wallace. For example, he really likes mocking Canadians, who all say "Eh" or "Aboot." Thankfully, Smith's Mike Myers-worthy gags aren't lethal, save for every scene featuring Guy LaPointe ( Johnny Depp , doing a very bad Johnny Depp impression), a Clouseau-like Canadian detective. Thankfully, Wallace isn't Smith's main target. As in "Red State," a slightly-superior experiment in terror, Smith's eye is on Parks, a legitimately impressive performer. Smith doesn't like Howe either, as we see in the scenes where Howe blames his psychological instability on a never-ending gauntlet of child abuse. But that's besides the point. He does like Howe enough to give him several theatrical soliloquies, but those speeches make it impossible to invest in the villain as a legitimate threat. Which is a problem since "Tusk" works better as a horror movie than a comedy. Most of the scenes in which Wallace realizes how helpless he is are effectively creepy, particularly ones where Howe mocks Wallace by wailing, moaning and snarling at him. Parks isn't to blame for his role's shortcomings, including bloated scenes of dialogue that verge on Shakespearian. Smith doesn't know when to trust him, and let his line-delivery establish both the absurdity and horror of being a walrus-obsessed loner. It's not surprising that Smith's characterizations and dialogue lack subtlety given the type of broad comedy that Smith has practically made his brand. But somehow, watching him fail to make something interesting of "Tusk" is more disappointing than any of his other post-" Chasing Amy " misfires.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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Film Credits

Tusk (2014)

Rated R for some disturbing violence/gore, language and sexual content

102 minutes

Michael Parks as Howard Howe

Justin Long as Wallace Bryton

Génesis Rodríguez as Allison

Haley Joel Osment as Teddy

Johnny Depp as Guy Lapointe

• Kevin Smith

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Tusk Reviews

Kevin Smith's second foray into genre territory is a mostly successful tonal mishmash with some of the most grotesque imagery to come out of the 2010s.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 23, 2023

Aside from Johnny Depp's inscrutable "French Canada" accent, Kevin Smith's second horror film is bizarre, unsettling and frequently very funny.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 17, 2023

The material never quite commits itself tonally. Some scenes feel like a grotesque chiller, others play like your usual Smith-brand comedy. When Smith tries to combine these two tones, the unbalanced result is more awkward than enjoyable.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 29, 2022

Is it tonally inconsistent? Yes. Could I look away? Absolutely not. There's just something charming about this horrific piece of body horror. But if Kevin disrespects the sanctity of a Double-Double again we might have words.

Full Review | Feb 7, 2022

Far more effective when it's telling instead of showing.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Aug 31, 2021

Warrants a short film, not a ninety-minute movie that feels much longer than it actually is because of self-indulgent direction.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 2, 2021

A thought-provoking, subtextual philosophical commentary on humanity and man, with an emotional and visual depth that is undisputedly the best work of [Kevin] Smith's career, Tusk is both brilliantly disturbing and disturbingly brilliant.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2019

It's a notable return from Smith, and despite the many conversations about retiring as director, he seems to have enough vivaciousness to crack out something fun, surprising, and energetic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 5, 2019

Smith overreaches to touch upon what humanity really means without any actual interest in exploring that topic.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.75/5 | Jul 18, 2019

Is [Tusk] a good movie? Eh. Did it make me laugh? Absolutely. Will I watch another "horror" movies by Kevin Smith? YES.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 30, 2019

An insightful kind of stress dream, so close to home for Smith that, even with all its utter ludicrousness, it feels almost confessional.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5 | Apr 4, 2019

Parks does an amazing job in this role, to the point where his insane Human-Centipede-like scheme actually seems plausible.

Full Review | Mar 2, 2019

Smith has created a film that is genuinely horrific.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Dec 8, 2018

It's weird, fun, and surprisingly touching, a film that works way better than it has any right to.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 23, 2018

If you are looking for an absurd yet original horror-comedy, Tusk mostly fills this void.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 23, 2018

Contemporary self-referential sneering.

Full Review | Sep 6, 2018

Warts and all, this is a step in the right direction for Smith, whose customary rough-around-the-edges sloppiness has given way to more polished - and more audacious - genre splicing.

Full Review | Aug 21, 2018

Tusk's biggest strength is that it knows what the audience's expectations are and it exceeds each of them. It is preposterous, disgusting, and hilarious. It is destined to be a classic, and was a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Kevin Smith delivers a deeply disturbing movie that throws up plenty of questions about monsters and humanity yet still manages to give audiences enough of the Smith humour, charm and charisma that they'll be familiar with by this stage of the game.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 11, 2018

[Kevin] Smith needs to focus on this genre for a change.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Aug 17, 2017

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Tusk review: Kevin Smith seals his comeback with walrus horror show

Inspired by a hoax Gumtree ad, Kevin Smith’s bizarre imprisonment horror movie sees the director back to his snarky best

• Full coverage of Toronto 2014

S illy and sick, with very little blubber, Tusk, a comedy-horror about a man who is turned into a walrus, is the first great Kevin Smith film since Dogma. A spin-off from an episode of the Smodcast, Smith’s internet radio show, it’s as self-referential as any of the exuberant director’s duds, but it’s refreshingly self-deprecating too.

Justin Long plays Wallace Bryton, an arrogant arsehole who hosts LA comedy podcast “The Not-See Party” with his best friend Teddy (Haley Joel Osment). The duo specialise in interviewing freaks and weirdos, then trashing them on air. Wallace’s cruelty has made him rich, but it’s hard work, finding fresh mockables. His latest target – The Kill Bill Kid – has committed suicide, mortified that a video of him accidentally slicing off a limb with a samurai sword has gone viral. Wallace needs another freakshow quick. He doesn’t realise it’ll be his name on the marquee.

Tusk is based on a 2013 Gumtree advert posted by a Brighton man who said he had lived a life of adventure on the high seas. He recalled being stranded on St Lawrence Island for three years with only a walrus for company. He named him Gregory. Never had he had such a deep friendship “human or otherwise”. Now the sailor was lonely and wanted a flatmate. The rent was two hours a day, spent sewn into a “realistic walrus costume”. He would begin auditioning Gregorys immediately.

The ad was a fake, but Smith and his friend Scott Mosier took the bait. They hashed out a structure for a Hammer-style horror about the sailor live on their podcast. They gave the mariner a back-story, imagined who could play the lodger (they wanted John Cusack), even imagined the pitfalls (“It could get too Human Centipede”). To listen to the podcast is to hear the film come to life.

The result is a creepy, funny film that punctures the inflated ego of the geek made good. An imprisonment horror, like Misery if Annie Wilkes had gone beyond hobbling to stitching in fins. Long is superb as Wallace, the cocky little punk who barges into terror while looking for a story to exploit. Better still is Michael Parks, a regular for Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, who plays Howard Howe, the ancient mariner who traps him in his net. Howard’s sanity is slipperier than a mackerel. He’s built an aquarium in the basement, stocked up the fridge with fish. He’s ready for his new friend, “Mr Tusk”, to move in.

Outside the house of horror the action sometimes jumps the line. Teddy and Wallace’s girlfriend Ally (Genesis Rodriguez) recruit a French-Canadian detective, Guy Lapointe, to help them reel in the kidnapper. Lapointe, who is played by Johnny Depp , is a cluster of French-Canadian stereotypes (he’s even named after an ice hockey player). It’s a less wilfully kooky turn than many of his recent roles, but it’s still a caricature, and a fairly shallow one. Smith saw the potential for the film to lose focus way back when he was batting the idea around on his podcast. He worried about moving the action away from the mariner’s house for too long. His gut instinct was right.

Wallace is made to learn the ways of the walrus. The sailor finds the friendship he’s been fishing for for so long. Tusk is disgusting and gutsy, but mainly, fun. The lo-fi genius of Clerks, Smith’s calling card, lies some 20 years behind him. He’s often floundered since. Tusk brings him back to shore.

• First look review
• Kevin Smith
• Toronto film festival
• Toronto film festival 2014
• Horror films
• Comedy films
• Johnny Depp

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Tusk (I) (2014)

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• <i>Tusk</i>: The Human Walrus, the Crazy Carpenter and Hey, Isn’t That Johnny Depp?

Tusk : The Human Walrus, the Crazy Carpenter and Hey, Isn’t That Johnny Depp?

T he press notes for Tusk describe writer-director-editor Kevin Smith as “the fat guy who got thrown off the plane. He also made Clerks once.” That’s the whole biography, which suggests Smith’s comfort level with his renown as the jolly nerd who still lives in the basement of his fertile, fetid mind. His side jobs as comic-book savant and salesman, energetic podcaster with his friend Scott Mosier ( SModcast ) and genial raconteur in many media — all that, plus the notoriety of being told by Southwest Airlines that he was too fat to fly — have obscured Smith’s status as the loopiest and most engaging indie filmmaker of the 1990s. He scored mightily with three of his first four features ( Clerks , Chasing Amy and Dogma ), and even Mallrats misfired in the right direction.

Smith turned 30 in 2000, the year of Dogma , and for most of this century he’s been coasting. A sequel to Clerks , a pair of Jay and Silent Bob comedies featuring Smith’s and Jason Mewes’ character from Clerks , two romantic comedies ( Jersey Girl , Zack and Miri Make a Porno ) that came off as pale shades of Chasing Amy — it’s as if he were happy entering middle age with retreads of his early prime. Smith’s one stab at a medium-budget movie, Cop Out , only underlined the suspicion of his fans that he was too indie to sell out.

(READ: Richard Schickel’s review of Chasing Amy )

Tusk , at least, is different. It’s a movie adaptation, not of his first movies, but of SModcast No. 259 , in which he and Mosier spitballed the plot for a horror-comedy. See, these two guys — smug Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) and sweet, furry Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment, 15 years after The Sixth Sense ) — have this podcast called the Not-See Party. In each episode, Wallace confronts some YouTube eccentric, the sort whose embarrassments show up on Tosh.0 , and brings the evidence to Teddy, who has not seen it. Trekking up to Winnipeg to interview a kid who sliced off his leg in homage to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies, Wallace finds that the boy has died of his wound. Desperate for a story, he visits the remote Manitoban enclave of one Howard Howe (Michael Parks), who promises stories of “a lifetime of adventures.”

A friendly geezer in a wheelchair, Howe has the diction of a Civil War–era orator: he quotes Tennyson (“Nature, red in tooth and claw”) and calls Wallace “a rapscallion of the highest order.” He also spins colorful recollections (pictured in black and white) of sharing the D-Day invasion with Papa Hemingway and, more pointedly, of having his life saved in the Bering Sea by a friendly walrus that Howe calls Tusk. “I think the real savage animals are the humans,” he tells Wallace. And he proves it by — no spoiler alert needed, since everyone who has heard of Tusk knows what happens next, and few people would go if they didn’t want to see it — transforming his visitor into an Odobenus rosmarus . Wallace is to be a walrus, and Howe the carpenter.

Horror movies love the distortion and recombination of body parts, as in Frankenstein , Freaks and The Fly (to name just some F titles). In pulp form, these films muse on human decay and the outrages of nature. Science wants to create the perfect man, the ideal mate; that was the goal of surgeon Antonio Banderas in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In , and it was as doomed to grotesque failure, to a mockery of noble intentions, as any story about a man who would play God.

(FIND: Frankenstein , Freaks and The Fly on the all-TIME Top 25 Horror Movies list )

Howe has a more modest, and more depraved, experiment: to turn a human being into an animal. Not quite like the three-person arthropod in Tom Six’s Human Centipede trilogy — just the barely-living replica of his favorite beast. He sews Wallace’s arms to his side, stuffs tusks into his cheeks and encases his subject in a welter of blubber. (Kudos to the Wallace-walrus contrived by Robert Kurtzman, whose special-effects work dates back to the original Evil Dead , Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises.) In the process, Howe makes Wallace into something he had never been: a poignant creature.

Nice as it would be to herald Tusk as a return to Smith’s bold early period, the movie has a lurching tone and an airless atmosphere. It rarely jumps to life off the screenplay page — it’s not so much lazy as insufficiently inflected. The 74-year-old Parks, nearly a half-century past his Then Came Bronson studly surliness, gives cogent readings of Howe’s literary gaseousness, and Long makes Wallace a most convincing modern A-hole who almost deserves his punishment. But their scenes together have the tentative feeling of a first take. Genesis Rodriguez, as Wallace’s abiding girlfriend Ally, gets more feeling into a single-take sobbing scene.

The other no-need-for-a-spoiler-alert Tusk nugget is the appearance by Johnny Depp as French-Canadian detective Guy Lapointe, who has long been tracking “this serial killer who brings blood and death.” (Tarantino turned down the role, so Smith had to settle for one of the biggest stars on earth.) The performance has the extravagance of some major Depp portrayals, like Ed Wood and Jack Sparrow, but during his 10 or so minutes on screen you are less likely to think, Wow, Johnny Depp is great in that role!, than, Hey, that’s Johnny Depp!

He has brought along Lily-Rose Depp, his daughter with Vanessa Paradis, for a couple of brief scenes that display her astounding seraphic beauty. May she grow into a major film artist and never be walrusized.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

• Sept. 18, 2014

Opens on Friday

Directed by Kevin Smith

1 hour 42 minutes

“Tusk” is a Kevin Smith film, which is to say that it’s savvy enough to confirm that it was made by an adult, yet goofy enough to assure its audience that the adult in question remains unlikely to be caught wearing long pants.

A bizarre blend of loony kidnap drama and surreal Frankensteinian horror, the movie sends Wallace (Justin Long, working a mustache that signals a high ranking on the jerk scale), an American podcaster, to Canada in search of a story. While the script takes potshots at Canadian politesse, Wallace washes up at a back-of-beyond mansion where a grizzled raconteur (Michael Parks) crouches in a wheelchair, offering tea and tales of a seafaring past. Entranced, Wallace fails to grasp that his host’s creepy bond with one particular maritime beast might be moving from fond remembrance to bloody reconstruction.

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A jauntily self-aware fabulist, Mr. Smith doesn’t have it in him to dispirit for long, and “Tusk” proceeds with an ingratiating good cheer that deflects critical grumbling. About two-thirds of the way in, however, the silliness — abetted by Robert Kurtzman’s dementedly brilliant makeup effects — goes supernova. As Wallace’s doormat girlfriend (Genesis Rodriguez) and podcasting partner (Haley Joel Osment) follow his trail, a pinballing tone and indulgent editing — especially when an uncredited Johnny Depp appears as a loquacious, walleyed gumshoe — keep them company.

The result is so out there that you can imagine Mr. Smith and his collaborators rolling in the aisles at their own preposterousness. If you can find your inner 16-year-old, you might just join them. JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

“Tusk” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Dorm room language, operating room gore and distressing facial hair.

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Tusk (Movie Review)

Mike s's rating: ★ ★ ★ ½ director: kevin smith | release date: 2014.

If you would have told me that Kevin Smith (he of Clerks and Smodcast fame) would reinvent himself as one of the better genre film directors after a series of missteps I would have laughed in your face. Yet he has followed up the effective thriller Red State with the shockingly moving full on body horror film Tusk. It's a bizarre movie that admittedly owes a debt to the success of The Human Centipede. Yet Smith reaches for something more than shock for shock's sake, and while the film stumbles with some tonal third act miscues, it's an overall recommend.

Justin Long plays the star of the novelty podcast "The Not See Party" (get it?), where's he's obtained B-level celebrity status as someone who makes fun of the comic misfortunes of others that have been captured on You Tube. After a planned trip to Canada to interview the "Kill Bill Boy" falls through due to the subject's untimely suicide, Long answers an advert he finds over a urinal left by an old sailor that just wants to share his stories.

The old sailor turns out to be Michael Parks, the catalyst behind Smith's comeback as of late. Parks turns out to be off his rocker and an elusive serial killer with a unseemly M.O. of turning his victim into a living walrus, Tusks, flippers and all. It's a ridiculous idea on the surface, but the skill which Parks delivers a yarn with his syrupy drawl while quoting Hemingway and Tennison lures you in before he reveals himself to be a bug eyed lunatic (I'll never in a million years be able to sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" to my daughter again) capable of unfathomable atrocities. For his part, Long spends the second half of the film acting almost entirely with his eyes and a series of sobbing grunts and elicits sympathy, where a lesser performance would result in peals of laughter from the crowd. Another surprising turns comes from Haley Joel Osment as Long's long suffering podcast partner who tries to hunt his friend down.

Smith isn't afraid to put those atrocities front and center either. What's striking is just how far he has come as a director from his early work. Known mostly for his humorous dialogue that catered to the 12 year old that resides in each of us, Smith leaves the potty humor behind after establishing Long's character. In its place are sweeping tracking shots that expose the settings isolation, and a long, steady build towards Long's fate as his new body is revealed on hideous part at a time before we shudder at its final grotesque form.

The film stumbles with the appearance of Johnny Depp, who plays a disgraced inspector chasing after Parks' serial killer. Because it's Depp, he's under heavy makeup and affecting a poor Quebec accent. He's supposed to be the comic relief, but he feels so out of place with the straightforward menace of the rest of the film, that he grinds the proceedings to a halt every time he appears. A case in point is the flashback sequence between Depp and Parks which goes on far too long for far too few laughs. If Smith excised the character, Tusk would have been much stronger overall.

As it stands, Tusk is much better than my initial skepticism led me to believe. If Smith can continue his partnership with Parks and continue to evolve his ability to write non-profane dialogue-Parks gets some juicy monologues to work with-he just might find even more success and acclaim in the second act of his career than he did during the View Askew heyday.

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If you’re a Kevin Smith junkie, as I am, you’ll appreciate the verbal pinwheels he spins around the horror genre in Tusk . If not, go dull your brain cells at Hollywood multiplex gunk. Tusk feels as offhand and undercooked as a podcast, which is how it started for Smith, so the jokes are hit-and-miss. Justin Long impresses as Wallace, half of an L.A. podcasting team – Teddy (Haley Joel Osment) is the other – specializing in the bizarre. That leads Wallace to Winnipeg, where he meets wealthy recluse Howard Howe (Michael Parks, relishing a role that allows him to be charming and bug-fuck nuts). Howe wants to turn Wallace into a walrus, and he has the surgical tools to do it. I’ll say no more, except watch out for an A-list star in prosthetic disguise as Guy Lapointe, a Quebec cop with an outrageous accent. Smith leavens the gags and gross-outs with surprising heart. It won’t help. Tusk is a mesmerizing mess that will make Joe Popcorn yak. Jay and Silent Bob will love it.

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A tall and silly tale signifies nothing in 'tusk'.

Mark Jenkins

In Tusk , Justin Long plays a podcaster who gets involved in a strange experiment. A24 Films hide caption

In Tusk , Justin Long plays a podcaster who gets involved in a strange experiment.

In Kevin Smith's best movies — and his worst ones, for that matter — the characters talk a whole lot of nonsense. That's also true of Tusk , the writer-director's second foray into horror. This time, the villain actually follows through on his nutty chatter. But he still spends a lot more time talking than torturing.

That is, torturing the protagonist. The walrus-obsessed madman, and his creator, don't spare the audience any abuse. Tusk is an overextended, tonally incoherent joke that would make viewers squirm even if it didn't involve a bloody and demented medical experiment.

Those who stay to the end will encounter two surprises. The one that will be revealed here is a snippet from the Smith podcast in which he, guffawing, first aired the idea that became this movie. So, the story's protagonist is a smug, snarky L.A. podcaster, Wallace (Justin Long).

Wallace and his sidekick (Haley Joel Osment) have become a hot team by making fun of everyday people who've accidentally made fools of themselves in public. In the process, Wallace has alienated his kind-hearted girlfriend. The only possible reason she sticks around is that Smith really likes looking at Genesis Rodriguez, the actress/model to whom he gave the part.

The podcaster heads to Canada to interview a kid who mutilated himself in a fake-looking sword mishap. That doesn't work out, but Wallace finds a message in a men's room, and that leads him to one Howard Howe (Michael Parks, who was also in Smith's Red State ).

Howe has a suitably bizarre nautical yarn to spin. But that tale is just the setup for his diabolical plan for Wallace. The podcaster who makes fun of outcasts is about to become one.

If that makes Tusk sound like a moral tale, it barely qualifies. What it is, is a protracted goof, with some gore — mostly off-camera — added to boost marketability. Plus the Fleetwood Mac title song, of course.

While Parks is impressively suave as the absurd obsessive, the other performances range from unpersuasive to distracting. Long is off-pitch throughout, and a slumming, uncredited superstar functions only as a half-comprehensible in-joke. Both the director and the superstar's teenage daughters have cameos, delivering some of the script's forced, unfunny Canuck-vs.-Yanks jokes.

Such randomness worked better for Smith when his budgets were lower and genre requirements were less restrictive. Tusk submits to horror's demand for blood, which makes tediously literal a movie that could have pondered the untrustworthiness of tall tales — whether recounted by psychopaths or on podcasts.

In Defense of Kevin Smith's ‘Tusk’: A Cult Horror Love Letter of Poetic Disgust

“Is the ego what separates man from walrus?” and other philosophical endeavors that explore the disturbing limits of art.

As with many cult and art films, Tusk is a polarizing movie that you either love or hate. When View Askewniverse creator Kevin Smith announced his 2014 horror film Tusk , and teamed up with A24 for distribution, fans were beyond excited to see what he would create. It’s safe to say that the result was something that no one expected, and makes one question if madness is a genre. Campy, gruesome and absurd, Tusk found itself in a choppy sea of mixed to very low ratings, with many viewers stating that they couldn’t see past, or see the point, of the main character's gruesome transformation from human to walrus. The deeper message is indeed hard to get to when confronted with the mesmerizing gore at the films' forefront, though what lies beneath the patchwork surface of the walrus flesh suit is what’s important. Tusk is a strange philosophical endeavor that dives into one of the greatest questions humanity still has yet to answer: “what separates man from beast?” Throughout the film humanity and animalistic nature are discussed in many ways from behind a thick, goopy veil of blood and blubber, all the while satirizing the disturbing limits that one will go to for the sake of art.

This horror love letter of poetic disgust is no exception to the genre’s love-hate relationship. Many have criticized Tusk ’s corny dialogue while others revered it as a perfectly executed classic horror trope that pokes fun at itself, and other overly dramatic, out of touch scripts (for example, look for the film's recurrent use of the word “banal”). And regardless of opinion on the story, Tusk ’s visuals are quite shocking. Even those who enjoyed the film have said they wish they could unsee parts of its intense and strange body horror that made Saw look like House Party 2 … or House Party 3 . Another common criticism is that Smith doesn’t know when to stop with his comedy, but during these points, if you ask yourself the question “Is Kevin Smith serious?”, the answer is simply: no. When you watch the film with this in mind, Tusk ’s execution, with its seemingly pointless poetic rambling, overly artistic cinematography and occasionally awkward timing, comes across as hilarious and admittedly kind of brilliant. In Tusk , Smith’s mix of humor and horror lands in the wonderfully uncomfortable space known as madness, where creativity runs wild and the ability to exist as both serious and not is free game. Smith’s beyond quirky creativity is what gives Tusk its legs... or flippers?... and his dedicated fans are partially to blame for its Frankenstein-esque creation.

How Did 'Tusk' Come About?

In line with many of Kevin Smith’s projects, Tusk began with a joke. While recording an episode of his podcast “SModcast,” the Clerks director and his close friend, producer Scott Mosier , discussed a housing ad found in an online forum in which a homeowner offered free lodging to anyone who agreed to live in a walrus suit. This hour-long discussion led the filmmaker to ask his audience in a Twitter poll if they should turn the hypothetical walrus story into a film. As you can imagine, the audience voted 100% yes. What came next is a satirical horror art film with no religious or sexual subplots that explores the disturbing boundaries that one will go to for the sake of art, as well as the limits of what one will consider art. Coupled with the philosophical query of what separates man from beast, Smith created a mind-bendingly different film that turns art and horror on its head in a knowingly absurd and ridiculous manner.

RELATED: 'Tusk' Sequel Reportedly in Development From Kevin Smith

What is 'Tusk' About?

In Tusk, audiences follow Wallace ( Justin Long ), a selfish and unfaithful podcaster who travels to Canada in order to interview a young man who lost his leg in an unfortunate Kill Bill reenactment accident. After making some harsh, if not cruel jokes at the young man’s expense, Wallace arrives at the interview to find that “Kill Bill Kid” fell on his own samurai sword, taking his own life due to the embarrassment of his unintentional internet meme stardom. Money-hungry and without a shred of conscience, Wallace is set on coming back from his trip with something for his next episode. After finding an intriguing listing on a cork board at a dive bar, the podcast host takes up an offer from an old seaman who advertises room, board and adventure stories free of charge. Upon Wallace’s arrival he learns of Mr. Howard Howe’s ( Michael Parks ) colorful life of adventure, and his reverence for one creature in particular, a walrus who saved his life while lost at sea.

After awakening in a heavily drugged stupor Wallace joins Howard in an intense Citizen Kane- style dinner conversation and learns of his fate to come. Howard reveals that he wishes to answer the question that he states has plagued mankind since the beginning of time: “Is man a walrus at heart?” And while this is a bewilderingly odd question that has likely plagued no man, it can be broken down to mean “Is man a beast at heart?” a question that has indeed been pondered by humans for lifetimes. As the two men growl and scream in an animalistic manner their journey into the social experiment begins.

The pursuit of finding what separates man from beast seems to be the overarching theme of the film. Throughout the hour and forty-two minutes of humor and horror, there are very on-the-nose references and symbology to the concept of humanity, including Howard’s lyrical ramblings in which he states that there is no point in leaving the dock to look for monsters, as the beasts have always lied within. As Wallace sits one-legged in karmic punishment for his selfish, “animalistic” behavior, he is painted as the “beast” who never should have left the dock.

Guy LaPointe, portrayed by Johnny Depp , describes Howard as an animal masquerading as a man, and a devil made of flesh. In this way LaPointe sees Howard as the “beast” for his murderous ways and lack of conscience.

Howard believes that humans themselves lack humanity. Throughout the film the antagonist reveals the truth of his troubled past and details how he was treated inhumanely as a child, stating he has done things that no human should have to do. When an animal showed him kindness he found his humanity, though when he killed that very same animal as a means of survival he lost it once again. In the strange climactic scene in which Howard dons his own walrus suit, the two begin to wrestle, signifying the pair wrestling with their humanity in two very different ways. Howard tells Wallace that in order to survive he must go “full walrus”, and Wallace, upon killing Howard, seems to lose his humanity completely. By turning a human into an animal, and then ultimately losing his life to the animal he created, Howard found the answer he was looking for and came full circle with his balance of human nature and animalistic ways.

What Separates Human From Animal?

In the final scene at the animal refuge a flashback takes place, in which Wallace’s girlfriend Ally ( Genesis Rodriguez ) is explaining how crying separates humans from the animals. Walrus Wallace is then seen crying in his trash strewn enclosure leaving the audience to question if his humanity is still intact and if his emotions separate him from the animal that he has become. Wallace’s enclosure itself is a mosaic of clues and symbolism. His favorite soda cups litter the ground, giving evidence that the Wallace that Ally and their friend Teddy ( Haley Joel Osment ) know and love is still in there somewhere, behind a mass of mutilated flesh. The script is then flipped to showcase a different perspective on human nature by examining Ally and Teddy, as well as humanity's treatment of animals as a whole. The concept of keeping an animal in an enclosure is not considered humane, and yet it is an exclusively human act. Does leaving Wallace in his sad, inhumane enclosure grant Ally and Teddy any more humanity than the beast who resides within it? In a way the film turns a mirror to its audience in this final scene, and leaves one to wonder if perhaps its ego, cognitive dissonance or humanity’s attempts to conceptualize humanity is what separates us from our animal counterparts. Perhaps it’s our ability to make a joke out of the concept as a whole.

Regardless of how you feel about Tusk , it is engaging, mesmerizing, and hard to look away from while simultaneously being hard to look at. It’s a film poking fun at itself, art poking fun at art, and not meant to be taken too seriously, which is part of the fun. If you found Tusk shocking, frustrating, or pointless the first time you viewed it, watch it again with the idea of it being a philosophical satire in mind, and you may experience the film in a completely different way. Regardless of reviews, Kevin Smith has said that Tusk is one of his favorite and most creatively satisfying films he’s ever made. In Walrus Yes: The Making of Tusk , Smith goes on to state that he is grateful that the film found its home with a group of die-hard fans. Fans who are able to look beyond the blubber, shock and gore, and appreciate the joke of it all.

‘Tusk’ (2014) Movie Review

By Brad Brevet

Like it or not, Kevin Smith has carved out his own niche in the world of cinema and I respect his decision to utilize his dedicated fanbase to make the movies he wants to make, rather than churning out studio garbage such as his 2010 feature, Cop Out . Tusk is his second venture into this latest stage in his career and, having not yet seen Red State , my first experience with something of a “new” Smith, a filmmaker that hasn’t abandoned his comedic origins, but instead twisted his brand of comedy into the horror genre. The result is a movie that I didn’t particularly enjoy or find funny, but still have to give credit where due, as I’d rather see more filmmakers making what they want to make and telling the stories they want to tell, instead of whatever second rate studio script lands on their desk.

Tusk centers on Wallace ( Justin Long ), one-half of a podcasting duo, heading up north to Canada and the backwoods of Bifrost, Manitoba where he thinks he’s struck a goldmine in Howard Howe ( Michael Parks ), a walrus-obsessed seafarer with promises of stories to tell. Stories, however, are hardly what’s on Howard’s mind as his dark intentions soon become clear and Wallace’s nightmares are just about to begin.

Long plays Wallace as a self-centered asshole you won’t care for in the least; his girlfriend, Allison ( Genesis Rodriguez ), is cheating on him and Teddy ( Haley Joel Osment ), his best friend and podcast co-host, doesn’t appear to have any respect for him either. But Teddy and Allison aren’t altogether terrible as they do set out to save their friend with the help of a peculiar ex-detective Guy Lapointe , investigating a series of mysterious disappearances and played by a major Hollywood star, though credited only as his character’s name. Hidden under a fair amount of makeup, the performance feels immediately familiar, and he’s one of the film’s better aspects even if each of his scenes goes on for far too long.

Thankfully, Parks is quite good in a sinister, maniacal performance though the motor-mouthed Long is consistently too much to bear as any and all of his attempts at comedy fall flat. Though I must give kudos to Long who must stretch further in the film’s second, far more demented, half as he’s limited mostly to only using his eyes to create any kind of sense of character.

When he’s going for horror, it’s the vibe that Smith nails, a lot of it thanks to his use of practical effects as Tusk gets weirder and weirder, which should give you some idea as to the audience that will enjoy this. Smith die hards will certainly fall for the consistent potty humor, convenience store punchlines and a liberal use of the word “fuck” as if it makes any pedestrian sentence funnier, while genre fans soak up the absurd horror.

The makeup effects from Robert Kurtzman are perfectly unsettling. In fact, had Smith played this more as a straight horror rather than injecting his constant, now-tiresome juvenile humor, I think Tusk could have been a terrifically disturbing little film.

Not only are the effects impressive, but Smith has also upped his game as a filmmaker, focusing as much on jokes as he does on the actual concept of framing a shot. The crane shot as Wallace walks up to Howard Howe’s darkly lit forest chateau is very impressive, as are the scenes inside Howe’s place with some disturbing cinematography from James Laxton .

Tusk is one of those films I hate to grade as a reviewer. It’s possible to respect a film and the filmmaker’s intentions, but not enjoy the actual film, which is the case here. One reference to The Big Lebowski gave me my only laugh over the course of the 102-minute running time and as unsettling as the horror aspects are, I found myself more respectful of the attempt rather than enjoying what is really just a rather dumb, unfunny horror movie.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Gruesome, unfunny horror-comedy from Kevin Smith.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The main character is a selfish, cruel person, but

The main podcaster, Wallace, is shown to be mean,

The movie is very nearly at the level of the "tort

No nudity is shown, but a couple is interrupted du

As usual in Kevin Smith movies, language is consta

Wallace is given drugged tea; he gets dizzy and pa

Parents need to know that Tusk is a horror comedy written and directed by Kevin Smith, based on one of his own podcasts. The horror part is very gruesome and dark, not unlike The Human Centipede , but with some (supposed) comic relief from time to time. There's lots of blood, some horrific operations,…

Positive Messages

The main character is a selfish, cruel person, but certainly his punishment far exceeds his crime. This movie takes place in a world where terrible things happen, and then ... that's it.

Positive Role Models

The main podcaster, Wallace, is shown to be mean, careless, and callous while enjoying the wealth, fame, and sex that come with his success. He was apparently once a nice guy, and his girlfriend preferred him like that, but now he's a jerk and he insists that he's much happier. The rest of the characters are killers and/or comical cops.

Violence & Scariness

The movie is very nearly at the level of the "torture porn" subgenre of horror, as in The Human Centipede , except that it takes breaks for comedy every so often, and the tone is generally lighter. In any case, it's still very disturbing. The killer cuts off the main character's legs, operates on him, uses his leg bones as "tusks," sews up his arms, and forces him into a walrus "suit" made of flesh. There's a showdown between man and walrus that includes stabbing. Lots of blood is shown. In flashback, viewers see a man tearing into a dead walrus and eating it raw. In a video, a kid slices off his leg with a sword; he later commits suicide (off screen). Another dead "walrus" is seen at the bottom of a tank. A man tells a story of being raped as a child.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

No nudity is shown, but a couple is interrupted during oral sex in their bedroom, and strong sex talk is very frequent. A man talks crudely about cheating on his girlfriend while he's on the road. He also uses phrases like "came in my pants," and "popping my cherry." His girlfriend is shown in a bra and other sexy outfits. An older man's naked bottom is shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

As usual in Kevin Smith movies, language is constant and includes "f--k," "s--t," "ass," "prick," "bitch," "c--k," "Christ" (as an exclamation), "a--hole," etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Wallace is given drugged tea; he gets dizzy and passes out. Early on, he has a casual drink in a bar. He's also shown smoking a cigarette in a flashback.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Tusk is a horror comedy written and directed by Kevin Smith , based on one of his own podcasts. The horror part is very gruesome and dark, not unlike The Human Centipede , but with some (supposed) comic relief from time to time. There's lots of blood, some horrific operations, and both physical and emotional torture. Language is very strong, with many uses of "f--k," "s--t," and all kinds of other words. Sexual innuendo and sex talk are also extremely strong, with crude references, sexual situations (including implied oral sex), and a girlfriend in sexy outfits. A main character also smokes a cigarette. This movie has tons of Internet buzz, as Smith asked fans whether they wanted to see it before he made it, and teens may take sitting through it as a kind of dare. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (4)
• Kids say (15)

Based on 4 parent reviews

A Whole New Kind Of Weird

Disturbing movie with zero laughs, which is not ideal for a horror/comedy movie, what's the story.

Popular podcaster Wallace Bryton ( Justin Long ) makes a living making fun of people, including a poor kid who accidentally sliced off his leg while performing lightsaber moves. He travels to Canada to interview the kid but meets with some bad luck. On the hunt for a new story, Wallace finds a handbill written by an old sailor, Howard ( Michael Parks ), who wants to tell his incredible true sea stories -- including his rescue by a walrus. Unfortunately, it turns out that Howard's real plan is to turn Wallace into a walrus (yes, you read that right) to recreate his experience. Meanwhile, Wallace's sidekick ( Haley Joel Osment ), his girlfriend ( Genesis Rodriguez ), and an ex-cop (a heavily disguised Johnny Depp , credited as "Guy Lapointe") must find him before it's too late.

Is It Any Good?

The idea for Kevin Smith 's latest film came from his own podcast, and it smacks of a dare, rather than any real desire to tell a story. It seems as if the idea for TUSK must have been a good deal funnier to the folks behind the scenes than it is to the audience; in fact, it's not even clear which parts are meant to be funny. The movie shifts uneasily between horror and comedy. And the horror isn't scary or moody; it's just highly unpleasant, like a dumbed-down version of The Human Centipede .

While the comedy, such that it is, comes as a welcome relief from the gruesome parts, it's a far cry from Smith at his funniest or warmest. It's amusing for a little while to watch Guy Lapointe and try to figure out why he looks so familiar, although his shtick gets a little tiresome. The only other pleasure in the movie is watching Parks in a flashback scene, playing with a totally different personality. He's a terrific actor, truly edgy and sometimes scary. He deserves better films.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Tusk 's gruesome violence . How did it affect you? What's appealing about watching "torture porn" horror movies? Are they scary ? If not, what's the point?

How do comedy and horror mix together in this movie? How do they help or hinder each other? What other comedy-horror movies have you seen, and how did they compare?

How does Wallace behave toward others? Why would a podcast dedicated to making fun of people become so popular? What's appealing about it?

Does Wallace deserve his fate? How do you think the movie would have played out if he had been nicer?

Why is sex such a big topic in this story? Why does Wallace talk about it so much? What's his attitude toward his girlfriend?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 19, 2014
• On DVD or streaming : December 30, 2014
• Cast : Justin Long , Michael Parks , Genesis Rodriguez
• Director : Kevin Smith
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
• Studio : A24
• Genre : Horror
• Run time : 102 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : some disturbing violence/gore, language and sexual content
• Last updated : November 26, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Screen Rant

Tusk: walrus man true story explained.

Tusk is a disturbing movie about one man's love for his involuntary walrus-human hybrid - and this mindboggling premise is based on actual events.

• Tusk is based on a fake online ad that offered a rent-free room but required the tenant to dress up and behave like a walrus occasionally.
• The movie explores what would happen if the joke ad were real, but the characters and storyline are fictional.
• The director, Kevin Smith, initially thought the ad was real and used it as inspiration to create Tusk , combining elements from his own life and adding a horror twist.

The walrus man in Tusk , Kevin Smith’s horror comedy about a man who is surgically transformed into a human walrus, has earned the movie a solid cult following for nearly a decade. However, the most disturbing thing about Tusk and the walrus-human hybrid is that it was based on a true story — or so the movie humorously claims. The real story of Tusk isn't as bombastic and harrowing as the movie — nobody was ever turned into a walrus in real life. However, as Tusk proudly points out, the skin-crawling premise of a human being surgically reconstructed into a hybrid man-walrus creature for the enjoyment of an eccentric serial killer isn't entirely fictional.

Tusk is so disturbing because Justin Long's Wallace gets painfully transformed into a "walrus" by Michael Parks' chilling serial killer Howard Howe. Thankfully, this never happened in real life. Tusk was, however, inspired by a fake online advertisement offering a rent-free room, but with a catch: the lucky tenant must be willing to occasionally dress up as and behave like a walrus. The fake ad which inspired Tusk was writer Chris Parkinson of Brighton, England. The joke ad received over 400 responses, and the story of how a harmless prank became one of the most viral body horrors of the last decade is almost as fascinating as Tusk itself.

10 Horror Movie Characters Who Suffered Something Worse Than Death (According To Reddit)

Howard's ad in tusk was based on a real-life ad (sort-of), the true story of tusk didn't include a serial killer.

Tusk is based on a true story, but the story it's based on isn't the same one the movie tells. Rather, Tusk is the exploration of what would have happened if a joke were real, and what circumstances would need to fall into place for it to plausibly happen. The advertisement for a voluntary live-in walrus did exist, so Tusk isn't being false with its claims of being based on real events. However, the characters of Wallace, Teddy, and importantly Howard Howe were all made up. Chris Parkinson, who made the original Tusk advertisement, didn't even post the note as himself, and definitely didn't plan to turn a human being into a walrus.

Kevin Smith created every detail beyond the premise for Tusk. In Tusk , Los Angeles podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) and his co-host, Teddy (Haley Joel Osment), ridicule unfortunate people in viral videos, and Wallace interviews them. For an interview with a teenager who mistakenly cut off his own leg, Wallace has to go to the outskirts of Manitoba, Canada. After he discovers that the man has died by suicide, presumably because of the ridicule, he finds a flyer posted by an old man who seems like he would be perfect for the podcast.

Unlike Parkinson’s original human walrus ad, however, the flyer in Tusk does not mention the walrus , and it is not a joke. Instead, it is a lure posted by serial killer Howard Howe (Michael Parks), a retired sailor obsessed with finding redemption for killing and eating a walrus that he claims once saved his life. He surgically transforms his victims into a human walrus, which he names Mr. Tusk, so that he can re-enact their time together.

This thankfully bears no resemblance to the real-life Chris Parkinson and the ad he posted, but was an incredibly satisfactory answer to the question "what if someone posted this and it wasn't a joke" — as evidenced by the cult viral fame Tusk has found since its release.

How Johnny Depp Was Cast In Tusk (& Why He's Not Credited)

How did the fake ad become kevin smith’s tusk, kevin smith thought the real tusk ad was genuine at first.

Considering the major differences between Parkinson’s fake ad and the film, it may be difficult to imagine how the former inspired the latter. Thankfully, Kevin Smith has been open about his process when creating Tusk from the "true story" . It's obvious that Tusk replaces the old man with a serial killer and the walrus costume with a grotesque surgical transformation into a human walrus. But where do the film’s protagonists come from? The answer to this question is surprisingly simple: They are based on the film’s director, Kevin Smith, and his friend Scott Mosier ( Clerks ).

In one episode of Askewniverse creator Kevin Smith ’s SModcast podcast, they read the fake ad aloud and laugh about it, thinking it’s real. This was the start of the process that would eventually lead to Kevin Smith creating Tusk, which is why the movie focuses on Wallace and Teddy. However, in Tusk the podcasters are considerably crueler than Smith and Mosier, and Wallace’s transformation into a human walrus can be interpreted as a karmic consequence of this cruelty. His transformation is also the result of the serial killer’s special relationship with the walrus, similar to the special relationship featured in Parkinson’s fake ad.

While Tusk can only laughably be considered to be based on actual events, Smith's movie was undeniably inspired by the ad. The film embellishes the story, combines it with elements taken from Smith's own life , and applies a classic horror premise to it: a disgraceful man in search of something doesn’t find what he’s looking for but gets exactly what he deserves. Tusk deploys a commentary on voyeurism, a culture of schadenfreude, and the perils of both. Wallace ridiculed unfortunate people for a living and put them on display. The price he paid for that cruelty was to become one of them by the film's conclusion.

The Fake Tusk Ad Author Explains The Adaptation To Screen Rant

The man behind the ad that inspired tusk has a fascinating story.

Screen Rant caught up with UK poet Chris Parkinson, the author of "Landlord Seeks Lodger For Walrus Cosplay" — the online accommodation listing credited with Tusk 's entire existence. The project escalated very quickly, and Parkinson was present on-set during the production of Smith's horror curio . According to Parkinson, the escalation of the bizarre but unassuming post led to " the strangest year and a half of his life " (and one of the weirdest movies to boot).

"I got whisked out to North Carolina for filming. I spent a week wandering around a deserted country club, watching Michael Parks muttering lines from my advert in a gloriously sinister way, and coming face to face with some very alarming life-size walrus suits," Parkinson recalls. "A year later, I was out in LA watching the premiere, although I don't think anyone knew who the hell I was when I walked down the red carpet."

Many authors, including Stephen King, hated some movie adaptations of their work. But Parkinson glows about Tusk as a piece of cinema. "I loved it. I think it's absolutely hilarious. But it horrified other people," he enthuses. "It's certainly a bit more sinister than my original advert, but I think that works in its favor. It takes the premise set up in the post and it evolves it to its logical and terrible conclusion. And the ending is probably the most heartbreaking moment in the entire history of cinema. Perhaps man truly is a walrus at heart." Parkinson met Smith a handful of times and maintains that the legendary director was "kind, welcoming and absolutely hilarious."

However, movie director Kevin Smith initially thought that the advertisement was real when researching the movie . "Kevin didn't know that it was some guy writing a ridiculous advert on Gumtree (a Craigslist equivalent in the UK) – he thought that people were trying to introduce him to a real guy with a spare room and a homemade walrus costume. Which, given how things turn out in the film, might not be the sort of person you'd actually want to meet in real life."

As far as the original post goes, over 400 people replied, which, according to Parkinson, "says a lot about the housing situation in most major cities ." But would he have replied having stumbled across the ad himself? "I would like to say no, but I'm always up for a challenge." Tusk received a disappointingly meager theatrical release in the UK, but Chris Parkinson and Kevin Smith contributed something singular to the horror genre . Here's hoping that the snake vortex movie picks up traction soon. In hindsight, Tusk was a rarity that warrants a revisit.

Every Kevin Smith Movie Ranked From Worst To Best (Including Clerks III)

Why kevin smith adapted the real walrus man advert into tusk, the director saw the potential of the weird tusk true story.

Tusk has been warmly received by audiences who enjoy body horror, weird movies, or are simply fans of cult cinema icon Kevin Smith. However, many have wondered why Kevin Smith made Tusk in the first place . The premise is incomparably bizarre, and while it's easy to appreciate this as a viewer watching Tusk, it raises questions about how the movie made it through the gate. Kevin Smith has been open in interviews about the difficulties he faced getting Tusk made, and many of them stemmed from just how ridiculous the plot seemed on paper, even with the viral Tusk true story cited by the director for justification.

Speaking to AskMen , Kevin Smith revealed that Justin Long in particular was a difficult actor to bring aboard. " I hit him [Justin Long] up with a script, and his agent was like, don’t do this." Kevin Smith explained when recalling the Tusk star's initial reaction to the story, "He was like, “Dude, my agent told me, 'You’re already the Apple guy, don’t be the walrus guy as well.'” He said he was scared of it, but he f***ing loved it." Suffice it to say, Long's agent eventually overcame their concerns, and the movie is now considered one of the highlight performances of the actor's career.

As for why the Tusk true story stood out to Kevin Smith to make it into a movie after laughing about it in a podcast, much of it had to do with the opportunity it presented. The Tusk director was open about how his love of horror movies informed the film, both in terms of his decision to make it and the tone of the finished product.

Kevin Smith recalled that in his childhood "I wanted to watch f***ing John Landis tear sh*t up with American Werewolf. And that’s the spirit animal of this f***ing movie. Because the tone of that movie informed Tusk. I was 10, 11 years old when I saw that. That flick is incredibly f***ing gory, incredibly scary, and f***ng trippy as well, but periodically, Landis injected big doses of humor. I remember the poster was like, “From the director of Animal House comes a new kind of animal.” And it was a new kind of animal. It was a f***ing scary movie that was also funny."

Smith's love for the gory visceral elements of horror movies shows in Tusk's execution too . The living walrus suit Wallace gets fused with wasn't part of the ad in the Tusk true story, and was concocted by Kevin James. It's understandably been a talking point since Tusk 's release, and the director took great lengths to ensure it was front-and-center when it came to what disturbed audiences saw on screen — "Once we start showing him, we’re like, “Look at it!” Because that’s what you paid to see. At the end of the day, it’s sideshow material. The only reason you came into that f***ing dark room is because you’re like, “I heard they made the guy a walrus.”

Tusk 2 Is Coming

Kevin smith's bizarre walrus movie is getting a sequel.

Break out the human walrus costume, because Tusk is getting a sequel. In the podcast Fatman Beyond (via Geek Tyrant ) Kevin Smith himself reported that Tusk 2 is on the way, and there's a reason he left the human walrus at the zoo in Tusk 's ending. The writer/director/actor even gave up some of the sequel's premise, which will be called Tusks , so audiences can know what to expect.

Firstly, Justin Long will be returning to reprise his role, and at some point, he will be rehabilitated out of the human walrus. However, his transformation still sticks with him — and he wants to inflict the pain he experienced on others now. Presumably, horror actor Justin Long will be surgically turning people into half-human-animal hybrid in Tusk , and it'll be intriguing to witness Long in a villain role. Kevin Smith plans to bring the Tusk sequel to the big screen in 2024, on the ten-year anniversary of the original film.

Tusk Ending Explained: I Am The Walrus

Kevin Smith's 2014 film "Tusk" has a rather strange origin story. On a 2013 episode of his long-running podcast "SModcast" — the episode titled "The Walrus and the Carpenter" — Smith and his co-host Scott Mosier came across a real-life British want ad from a man seeking a roommate. The want ad described a strange scenario wherein the lodger would be allowed to stay with the man rent-free, provided the lodger dress and behave like a walrus. The man who posted the ad evidently recalled a wonderful time in his past when he had bonded with a real-life walrus and wanted to recreate the feeling.

Smith and Mosier spend 60 full minutes discussing the veracity of the ad and laughing as they imagine this walrus-like scenario as it might appear in a feature film. The two of them become so enamored by their conversation that, by the end of the hour, they resolve to make the walrus film. Their only stipulation was a Twitter hashtag campaign wherein listeners could vote on whether or not such an absurd film should be made. Those in favor could vote #WalrusYes, and those opposed could vote #WalrusNo. The ayes had it.

It was later revealed that the want ad in question was indeed a joke post put out by a notorious Brighton prankster named Chris Parkinson, but it didn't matter. Smith wanted to make his walrus movie. The resulting film is an aggressively terrible surgery horror movie more in line with "The Human Centipede" than any of Smith's previous comedy and romance films. Reactions were mixed . Some critics responded positively to its wild audacity. Some called it one of the worst films of the year . Either way, "Tusk" is certainly unique.

Walrus-core

"Tusk" is, perhaps unsurprisingly, about a pair of podcasters who spend all day snarking at online videos. Justin Long is Wallace, the "leader" of the podcast which he has tackily named "The Not-See Party." His shtick is to travel around the world and talk to people he can potentially mock and embarrass on mic. He has become a minor celebrity with his "shock jock" language and attitudes, and is also a genuinely bad person. Wallace regularly cheats on his girlfriend Ally (Genesis Rodriguez) who is, in turn, having an affair with his co-host Teddy (Haley Joel Osment). Wallace, while investigating a potential story in Canada, finds a posted want ad very similar to the one Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier talked about on "The Walrus and the Carpenter." Wallace decides to investigate, and his feckless gullibility has him failing to notice that this is very much a horror movie situation.

He finds the reclusive Howard Howe (Michael Parks, offering a legitimately great performance) who tells Wallace the story of Mr. Tusk, a beloved walrus he once bonded with as a young man during a time of desperation. Wallace is then drugged and slowly surgically transformed into a walrus against his will. The stitched-up monster Wallace becomes is a horror beyond description. Although the premise is absurd, the walrus monster is a legitimately great horror creation.

It's at this juncture that "Tusk" dramatically changes gears and Smith succumbs to his base comedic instincts. A Quebecois police inspector named Guy LaPointe (Johnny Depp), armed with an outsize accent on par with Inspector Clouseau , goes looking for him. The character is overwhelmingly grating, and Smith lets Depp mug and ramble to his heart's content. The less said about him, the better.

Karmic revenge

Because the surgery used to transform Wallace is so extensive, there's no chance of him returning to his human self. He has tusks, a creature nose, and a bloated patchwork of skin. Additionally, he is robbed of his ability to speak. Wallace is now functionally an aquatic animal. For a while, he still has hope that he will be rescued, but Howard keeps pushing him to behave more and more walrus-like. Howard is eventually bested in walrus-to-walrus combat (Howard slips into a walrus-shaped flesh suit of his own), with Wallace, finally snapping, murdering Howard with his tusks. The final scene of "Tusk" finds Wallace, his sense of identity gone, living in a pool behind a remote rest stop. Ally stops by to feed him and pay respects to the man he once was.

"Tusk" is a horror-comedy by design, but there appears to be more at work beneath the surface of its ludicrous premise. The film seems to be offering audiences a karmic sacrifice. One might suspect that it is trying to answer for an entire generation of podcasters, misogynists, and scads of other media-savvy bad actors that became celebrities online from the mid-2000s on.

One might recall Harry Knowles , the crass ultra-geek who rose to fame/infamy in the late 1990s with his ultra-nitpicky, super-crass film commentaries on Ain't It Cool News. Or other edgelord YouTubers like Jake Paul. Or, indeed, any number of other problematic 20-somethings New Media personalities. Many of the YouTubers and podcasters of the time had affected a "shocking," deliberately offensive humor style that leaned hard into sexism and profanity.

Many used shocking language to "kid" sexist attitudes. Others, however, simply used sexist language. The biggest problem is those two things tend to sound identical.

The rise of Gamergate

One must also recall that 2014, the year "Tusk" was released, was also the year of Gamergate , an infamous harassment campaign that — to try to sum it up as succinctly as possible — targeted video game journalists for daring to address sexism in both games and the game journalism industries. Gamergate revealed, among other things, that the sexist and racist fringe-dwellers of the internet had the dark ability to mobilize for purposes of harm. It was an eye-opening moment for many, codifying that many people living online have come to foster dark, horrible attitudes. 

All of this stands in stark contrast to Kevin Smith's 1990s work, which was also crass but never punched down, and had a tendency to at least mildly intellectualize its crass humor. This new generation has the crassness of Smith and nothing more.

Wallace seems to be an avatar for New Media stars. He is the voice of mid-2000s podcasting: A horrible person who couches his tendency toward cruelty in winking humor. Smith didn't make an average, unsuspecting victim into a walrus. He made every New Media bad actor into a walrus. Now in his 30s, Wallace still makes the same mocking, gross jokes he did when he was 17. Smith was punishing his peers for refusing to evolve as they grew up. They are, to Smith, mere animals.

So when Ally bids farewell to Wallace and the decent man he once was, she isn't merely saying goodbye to a single person. She is lamenting the passing of a streak of decency in media. This generation is now to be left behind, chewing on fish and wallowing in their grossness. We should all follow Ally, then, and move on.