Justin Long as Wallace sitting in his wheelchair in Tusk – A24
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Kevin Smith is a filmmaker that many people look up to. Dating back to 1994’s “Clerks” (his little indie movie that could), Smith has been a director who does things his own way and has rarely succumbed to the whims of Hollywood, instead opting to tell the stories he wants to tell, as he wants to tell them. That was never more true than in 2014 when he made “Tusk,” an absolutely bizarre body horror movie that needs to be seen to be believed. For those who are morbidly curious, it’s now streaming on Netflix.
The film follows Wallace (Justin Long), a brash American podcaster who braves the Canadian wilds to interview Howard (Michael Parks), an old man who has an incredible past. However, just as Wallace unwittingly discovers that the man’s dark secret involves a walrus, he finds himself being forced to participate in a very twisted plan to merge a human with the animal.
“Tusk” isn’t generally known for being one of Smith’s best movies, but it’s absolutely one of his most fascinatingly strange. It’s also not for the faint of heart, as the body horror stuff does get pretty intense and graphic at times, which is out of character for those who know Smith for comedies like “Mallrats” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”
Smith originally got the idea for “Tusk” from a listing in which a homeowner was offering someone a place to live free of charge under the condition that they agreed to dress as a walrus. The whole thing was documented on episode #259 of his podcast “SModcast,” with that episode being titled (what else) “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”
Read more: The 50 Scariest Horror Movie Monsters Ranked
Tusk was a major departure for Kevin Smith
Michael Parks as Howard holding a needle in Tusk – Mark Fellman/A24
Taking to Twitter (back in its pre-“X” days), Kevin Smith then called on his fans to use the hashtag #WalrusYes if they wanted to see him turn his idea into a movie. The response was clear, and, thus, “Tusk” was born. “Six months from the day we recorded the podcast, we were on a set and I was saying ‘Action,” as Smith noted in an interview with /Film to promote “Tusk” in 2014.
The movie cost less than $3 million to make and was released in theaters by A24 as one of the company’s early works. It was intensely divisive upon release, with Germain Lussier calling it “an overly ambitious movie from a reinvented filmmaker” that “starts off good, completely flips, then struggles to find its way back” in his 2014 review of “Tusk” for /Film. The movie also bombed at the box office, pulling in just over $1.8 million.
All the same, it represented a change for Smith. Not only that, but his original plan was for “Tusk” to kick off what he dubbed the “True North” trilogy, a string of movies set in Canada. To date, though, only two films in the series — “Tusk” and its much-maligned follow-up “Yoga Hosers” — have actually happened. A planned third entry, “Moose Jaws,” remains stuck in limbo.
Over time, though, “Tusk” has found an audience. At one point, Smith even announced plans for a sequel titled “Tusks,” though that too has yet to come together. We’ll see if that changes, but in the meantime, for those interested in some twisted walrus-based horror in the Canadian wilderness, “Tusk” is just a few clicks away from Netflix subscribers right now.
You can also grab “Tusk” on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.