Wallace (Justrin Long) and Teddy (Haley Joel Osment) are a duo host of a podcast called The Not-See Party that specializes in rude jokes to make fun of all kinds of silly videos on the internet. No one survived their banter. Even a teenager who accidentally cut his leg with a samurai became a joke. Best Movie Site
In order to interview the teenager, Wallace went to Canada, where he found the surprise that his target had committed suicide. Not wanting to go home empty-handed, Wallace tries to find another strange story to take with him. That’s when he found a paper in the toilet which basically tells of an old man with various interesting adventures during his life. Without thinking twice, he went straight to the house of the man named Howard Howe (Michael Parks). At Howard’s house which is located on the outskirts of the city, the two begin to exchange stories, including the story of the old man’s astonishing adventures from his meeting with Hemmingway to the time he was stranded on an empty island and was rescued by a walrus. Wallace doesn’t realize that he has become the next target of Howard’s crazily ruthless act.
This film is quite ambitious, at least by Kevin Smith standards. The basis is body horror, which means that the biggest focus is on delivering shocking horror. But on the other hand there is a satirical comedy about many things that Smith tucks. Not to mention the touch of drama that is trying to be directed towards tragedy. This big ambition, unfortunately, ends up being maximized and the film’s focus is less focused. Let’s start discussing the horror first. For me, the fun of the body horror genre is when I am stunned and even disgusted by seeing the transformation of humans into very different figures. Seeing little by little a character’s body parts change with strangeness everywhere is his pleasure.
So, basically it’s all about the process. For example, take a look at David Cronenberg’s The Fly which is one of the best body horror. We don’t see the main character disappear for a while then appear again and have completely transformed into a fly monster. But we are invited to look in detail, slowly how one by one the limbs are changed. The character’s pain, suffering and insanity eventually spread to the audience, increasing their disgust.
But Tusk didn’t do that. We only see Wallace who is unconscious, then his leg has been amputated. Then he is unconscious again, we see Howard sewing something (which we know is Wallace’s body but not shown for real), and finally we immediately see Wallace totally as a walrus. I don’t understand why Kevin Smith did that, because if it’s to minimize sadistic graphics, isn’t that the main point of body horror? The absence of a detailed transformation moment made the 102 minutes duration filled with more things outside horror bodies such as chats between characters, romances containing chats between characters, to investigations of Wallace’s disappearance, which was again filled with chats between characters. Movie Review
In the end, rather than expletive, I was more often bored because of it. Then get into the comedy aspect. Comedy is how Smith fills in a moment of emptiness when horror is not there. Justin Long became the main focus of this aspect, to be replaced by Johnny Depp after Long became a walrus. Justin Long is cute enough with his style as he pleases, although it feels annoying more often than not. Johnny Depp? Again, he plays a strange character even without heavy make-up. Obviously he wasn’t funny.
Kevin Smith tries to provide satire and irony here when showing Wallace who does not hesitate to mock disabled people even saying “I would not hesitate to lose my legs if I could be famous like him” and finally ended up being a walrus. There are still other things such as the relationship between the United States and Canada, even talking about the humanity of a human being. The satyr had to be shrewd in criticizing what ended up being ticklish, and Tusk wasn’t smart at all. Again, there was failure due to Kevin Smith’s own ambition. Some comedy moments can make me laugh briefly, but some are too stupid. The best example is the climax. If you feel the premise of a human being turned into a walrus is absurd, watch the climax of this film. I was made speechless … in a negative way. The strangeness is still not so bad, it’s good. Just stupid. It gets even more weird when the thing that feels most like after the film is over is drama.
Throughout the film, maybe nothing really hits, be it romance or philosophy about the people. But once it was over, there was a bit of a tragic feeling that still resonated in my mind about humans who lose everything after wasting all of it while there is still a chance. It saved the film from being a disaster, but still a huge disappointment. Top Movie