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Kevin Smith is a filmmaker that many individuals look as much as. Dating back to 1994’s “Clerks” (his little indie movie that could), Smith has been a director who does issues his personal approach and has not often succumbed to the whims of Hollywood, as a substitute opting to inform the tales he desires to inform, as he desires to inform them. That was by no means extra true than in 2014 when he made “Tusk,” a completely weird physique horror film that must be seen to be believed. For many who are morbidly curious, it is now streaming on Netflix.
The movie follows Wallace (Justin Lengthy), a brash American podcaster who braves the Canadian wilds to interview Howard (Michael Parks), an outdated man who has an unbelievable previous. Nonetheless, simply as Wallace unwittingly discovers that the person’s darkish secret includes a walrus, he finds himself being compelled to take part 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 surely’s completely one in every of his most fascinatingly unusual. It is also not for the faint of coronary heart, because the physique horror stuff does get fairly intense and graphic at instances, which is out of character for many who know Smith for comedies like “Mallrats” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Again.”
Smith initially bought the thought for “Tusk” from a list through which a home-owner was providing somebody a spot to reside freed from cost beneath the situation that they agreed to decorate as a walrus. The entire thing was documented on episode #259 of his podcast “SModcast,” with that episode being titled (what else) “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”
Tusk was a significant departure for Kevin Smith
Taking to Twitter (again in its pre-“X” days), Kevin Smith then referred to as on his followers to make use of the hashtag #WalrusYes in the event that they needed to see him flip his concept right into a film. The response was clear, and, thus, “Tusk” was born. “Six months from the day we recorded the podcast, we had been on a set and I used to be saying ‘Motion,” as Smith noted in an interview with /Film to promote “Tusk” in 2014.
The film value lower than $3 million to make and was launched in theaters by A24 as one of many firm’s early works. It was intensely divisive upon launch, with Germain Lussier calling it “an excessively bold film from a reinvented filmmaker” that “begins off good, utterly flips, then struggles to search out its approach again” in his 2014 review of “Tusk” for /Film. The film additionally bombed on the field workplace, pulling in simply over $1.8 million.
All the identical, it represented a change for Smith. Not solely that, however his authentic plan was for “Tusk” to kick off what he dubbed the “True North” trilogy, a string of films set in Canada. Thus far, although, solely two movies within the collection — “Tusk” and its much-maligned follow-up “Yoga Hosers” — have really occurred. A planned third entry, “Moose Jaws,” stays caught in limbo.
Over time, although, “Tusk” has discovered an viewers. At one level, Smith even announced plans for a sequel titled “Tusks,” although that too has but to come back collectively. We’ll see if that adjustments, however within the meantime, for these considering some twisted walrus-based horror within the Canadian wilderness, “Tusk” is just some clicks away from Netflix subscribers proper now.
