Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Tusk Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's Fleetwood Mac when you really need them?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 25, 2014

Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

Native German speakers may recognize that as the opening line of Franz Kafka’s disturbing story The Metamorphosis. It’s an iconic opening, but one that has given translators fits since the novella first appeared in 1915. Many English translators have agreed on the first section of the sentence, which is typically translated as:

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into—

But it’s what comes after that “into” that has been variously translated as “an insect,” “a gigantic beetle,” or the somewhat more generic “vermin,” “monstrous vermin” or even “horrible vermin.” The salient point is, of course, that hapless Gregor Samsa awakens one morning to find himself transmogrified into something he doesn’t recognize. There’s a certain passive quality to the announcement of Gregor’s transformation and indeed Kafka never really explains what or why what happened, happened. Kevin Smith is certainly no Franz Kafka (for better and/or worse), and while his latest film Tusk more or less goes the Metamorphosis route, it’s via a decidedly mundane gambit involving a kind of modern day take on the hoary horror film trope of the mad scientist.

Kevin Smith’s filmography is a rather odd lot, one where a sort of proto-indie spirit is often subsumed by rather portentous subtexts. Smith isn’t afraid to invest his films with anarchic elements which at times baffle, at other times, fascinate. A repeated mantra of sorts heard over and over in some of the featurettes included on this Blu-ray offers a somewhat defiant “this is a f***in' horror movie” to anyone who might question Smith’s genre bashing proclivities. Of course Smith has previously trafficked in horror, or at least quasi-horror, with the interesting if flawed Red State. And that’s the thing about Smith’s oeuvre — it’s almost invariably interesting even when elements don’t completely gel.

Smith has already taken on such formidable institutions as the Catholic Church (Dogma), so something as relatively mundane as the internet shouldn’t provide much challenge for him. Tusk owes its genesis to the internet in a couple of ways. Smith and his partner Scott Mosier worked up a treatment of sorts for a patently bizarre online ad they had spied where a guy was offering free room and board in exchange for the renter dressing up like a walrus for a couple of hours a day. In turn, they then broadcast their treatment on their own podcast. Taking this internet frenzy to its logical (?) conclusion, Smith asked his Twitter followers to tweet one of two hashtags, #WalrusYes or #WalrusNo, indicating whether they’d like to see a feature film built around this premise. Guess which one won?

Since Smith offers a rather “in your face” announcement that Tusk is a horror film, it probably goes without saying that the plot does not deal with a man simply dressing up as a walrus to please his landlord. Instead, the film focuses on Wallace Bryton (Justin Long), who with his partner Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment) hosts a podcast rather insouciantly named “The Not-See Party,” where they mercilessly skewer videos that have gone viral on—yep, you guessed it, the internet, a la Daniel Tosh and Tosh.0 or (much funnier, in my not so humble opinion) the newer Comedy Central outing @Midnight. Wallace does not suffer internet fools gladly, being more than happy to pummel them without remorse in a juvenile display of supposed superiority.

Wallace flies to Canada to track down a kid whose unfortunate video shows a life altering injury (what—there are no internet idiots in an Askewniverse New Jersey?), a calamity which not so subtly foreshadows something that's going to happen to Wallace himself in a little while. That story lead doesn’t actually pan out, however, which is when Tusk finally starts exploiting the walrus angle, when Wallace decides to check out an ad for a renter which promises an unending series of exciting tales, kind of like Scheherezade and A Thousand and One Nights. Wallace is greeted not by a beautiful yarn spinning woman, but by an elderly, seemingly addlepated cripple named Howard Howe (Michael Parks, quickly becoming Smith’s go to guy for outré characters). Howe launches into a story of his seafaring days and a somewhat whimsical account of having been saved by a walrus long ago in a boating mishap.

In a kind of riff on ideas seen in previous horror films like Dead of Winter, Wallace becomes a prisoner in the household, and is drugged and then subjected to some gruesome treatment at the hands of Howe. Since the inarguably weird premise of the film is one of its chief, pre-announced calling cards, it's not really a spoiler to reveal that this treatment in turn leads to him being stuffed inside a walrus “outfit” of sorts. Playing out against this squirm inducing arc are backstories for both Wallace and Howard, as well as attempts by Wallace’s friends to track him down and figure out what happened to him in Canada, typically presented interstitially between the walrus sequences.

There’s no doubt that Tusk has a creepy, even sinister, vibe, but it’s also too piecemeal to ever really work up much momentum. The film is perhaps fatally hobbled by what should be its standout horror allure, namely the walrus “suit” itself. While unforgettable in its own peculiar way, the rubber appliance may actually provoke laughter instead of shock, minimizing any latent fear factor that may be simmering. Smith's sense of humor is famously askew (hmm. . .), but he doesn't really seem to be going for laughs in Tusk, a decision that some may find hard to reconcile with the whole walrus angle.

The film does offer yet another fantastic showcase for Parks, who has managed to make his golden years a compendium of sorts of odd, often menacing, characters. Long is fine if kind of bland as Wallace. For all of Smith’s insistence that Tusk is an out and out horror film, it never really works up many outright scares, coasting instead on an almost subliminal feeling of dread. Perhaps not unexpectedly, this is a kind of post-modern take on various horror tropes, filtered through Smith’s piquant if not always totally focused sense of expression. There’s anxiety aplenty in Tusk, but ultimately surprisingly few chills.

Tusk Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tusk is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot digitally with the Arri Alexa and Red One, Tusk is an unusually handsome looking film considering its somewhat off the wall subject matter. Smith and cinematographer James Laxton don't really start exploiting a kind of elegiac, burnished tone until Wallace gets to Howe's nicely appointed mansion, where things take a suitably Gothic turn, both in terms of the production design as well as some of the lighting choices. But even in the earlier, relatively more mundane sequences, as well as the interstitials that keep popping up throughout the film as tangential plot arcs are explored, the image has excellent depth and a really nicely varied palette. A few interstitial elements are in black and white, where contrast is excellent and gray scale nicely delineated. Fine detail is excellent throughout the film, though some may find the very sharpness a detriment to believing in the reality of the walrus suit. There are some inherent issues with lackluster shadow detail in some of the interior mansion footage—the first time Wallace walks into the house, for example, virtually nothing can be seen other than Long's cherubic face bobbing in a sea of blackness. Contrast and black levels are both strong and consistent, and aside from passing issues with crush, there's not much else to cause concern.

Tusk Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tusk's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 offers the most depth and immersion courtesy of the moody and rather effective score by Christopher Drake, but there are occasional touches of surround activity with effects like Wallace's mournful "walrus wail" panning through the surrounds. Dialogue is very cleanly presented with excellent fidelity on this problem free track.

Tusk Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Kevin Smith. Smith is his usual engaging self, if somewhat more ruminative and less raucous than he can be (what is that peculiar long inhaling sound as the commentary starts?). He gets into the genesis of the film, and indeed tends to spend most of the time discussing the concept rather than its excecution.


• 20 Years to Tusk (1080p; 24:27) details the sometimes tortured path Smith took to get the film completed.


• The Making of Tusk is comprised of separate featurettes and includes:

  Main Story (1080p; 2:17) includes some fun animation;

  Pre-Production (1080p; 2:57);

  Director Down (1080p; 2:03) details an unwitting accident Smith suffered on set;

  Filming: Take 1 (1080p; 5:28);

  Filming: Take 2 (1080p; 2:49);

  Filming: Take 3 (1080p; 3:30);

  Filming: Take 4 (1080p; 3:02);

  Filming: Take 5 (1080p; 4:19);

  Filming: Take 6 (1080p; 2:18).

  Production Design (1080p; 3:02) focuses on the efforts of John D. Kretschmer.

  From Pod to Screen (1080p; 4:25) looks at the online component that helped spark the story.

  Flying with Mewes (1080p; 3:52) follows Jason on site at an abandoned Olympic Village.

  Meet the Crew (1080p; 4:51) also features Mewes and introduces some of the "below the line" talent on the film.

  Wallace the Walrus (1080p; 6:35) gets up close and personal with a rubber walrus suit.

• Smodcast #259: The Walrus and the Carpenter (29:55) is an audio supplement presenting the original podcast that started the Tusk ball rolling.


• Deleted Scenes contain Smith introductions and include:

  Halifax Explosion (1080p; 6:57)

  Duplessis Orphan (1080p; 5:22)

Tusk Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

He is the walrus, goo-goo-ga-joob. You didn't actually think I was going to make it through this review without something like that coming along, did you? Smith has repeatedly staked out one of the most uniquely individual corners in the annals of contemporary film, and Tusk is certainly no exception. The film's very peculiarity is probably its chief asset, but it's a weirdness that may tend to play better vicariously in terms of reading about it or even listening to people talk about it (like in a podcast) than it does as a cogent film. Parks is once again spectacularly effective in a completely bizarre role. Unfortunately, he's surrounded by a kind of mess, not necessarily the blood, guts and limbs strewn about the film courtesy of Howe's "walrus assembling." Still, for those wanting something mostly (if not completely) different, and certainly for Smith aficionados, Tusk comes Recommended.