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Tusk (2014) - Kevin Smith


Definitely the most original and outrageous horror movie of 2014 is Kevin Smith's Tusk. This film is the product of the Hollywood Babble-On Podcast that is hosted by Smith and Ralph Garmin. They had literally just tossed the idea around and then, poof! It was made into a movie starring Justin Long, Haley Joel Osment, and Michael Parks. I will admit that when I started watching Tusk I expected to see something in the same vein as The Human Centipede. I expected to sit cringing through the whole feature. However, the end product was a bit disappointing and highly confusing.

This movie is about a podcaster, Wallace (Long), that travels to weird places and interviews weird people. He then, usually, returns to his best friend (Osment) and recants his entire trip while his friend laughs about it. The podcast is un-inspiringly called the Not See Party. Get it. Wallace heads to Canada to interview this Kill Bill kid that had cut his leg off. Only to find out that the kid had killed himself. Scrambling for a story he finds a letter from a crazy old man that is obsessed with walruses. Eventually the old man tricks Wallace and turns him into a half walrus half man. 

The horror starts to take a similar form. It starts to feel a bit Tom Six inspired and it nearly goes down the Human Centipede route but veers off into obscurity. Tusk starts to become a cluster-fudge about 1/3rd of the way into the film. It goes into areas that don't necessarily need to be explored. It feels like it's missing something. Johnny Depp makes an appearance but it feels like his cameo is quickly forgotten. It's like all of these characters are just elaborate frameworks of what real people should be. 


The movie isn't all bad. I love this nu-horror mad scientist genre. It is definitely a Body Horror film that does wonders for gore hounds and makes for an interesting tale. It's funny. I enjoy Justin Long's role. He was just the right kind of jackass. His back story was just... slapped together. It was interesting seeing Osment in his role. All in all, this movie is mediocre yet really original. I am curious to see where Kevin Smith can take this "Great North Trilogy"


 Director: Kevin Smith
Country: USA
Style: Body Horror 

 Did ya know...
 It was named the first runner-up to the Midnight Madness People's Choice Award.* Quentin Tarantino was offered the role of Guy Lapointe, but turned it down saying he dug the script and "couldn't wait to watch Michael Parks let loose his internal Kraken," but he had no interest in acting at the moment.* Kevin Smith and Johnny Depp's daughters play clerks. Clerks. (1994) launched Kevin Smith's career as a movie director and script writer.*


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