Like it or not, Kevin Smith has carved out his own niche in the world of cinema and I respect his decision to utilize his dedicated fanbase to make the movies he wants to make, rather than churning out studio garbage such as his 2010 feature, Cop Out. Tusk is his second venture into this latest stage in his career and, having not yet seen Red State, my first experience with something of a “new” Smith, a filmmaker that hasn’t abandoned his comedic origins, but instead twisted his brand of comedy into the horror genre. The result is a movie that I didn’t particularly enjoy or find funny, but still have to give credit where due, as I’d rather see more filmmakers making what they want to make and telling the stories they want to tell, instead of whatever second rate studio script lands on their desk.
Tusk centers on Wallace (Justin Long), one-half of a podcasting duo, heading up north to Canada and the backwoods of Bifrost, Manitoba where he thinks he’s struck a goldmine in Howard Howe (Michael Parks), a walrus-obsessed seafarer with promises of stories to tell. Stories, however, are hardly what’s on Howard’s mind as his dark intentions soon become clear and Wallace’s nightmares are just about to begin.
Long plays Wallace as a self-centered asshole you won’t care for in the least; his girlfriend, Allison (Genesis Rodriguez), is cheating on him and Teddy (Haley Joel Osment), his best friend and podcast co-host, doesn’t appear to have any respect for him either. But Teddy and Allison aren’t altogether terrible as they do set out to save their friend with the help of a peculiar ex-detective Guy Lapointe, investigating a series of mysterious disappearances and played by a major Hollywood star, though credited only as his character’s name. Hidden under a fair amount of makeup, the performance feels immediately familiar, and he’s one of the film’s better aspects even if each of his scenes goes on for far too long.
Thankfully, Parks is quite good in a sinister, maniacal performance though the motor-mouthed Long is consistently too much to bear as any and all of his attempts at comedy fall flat. Though I must give kudos to Long who must stretch further in the film’s second, far more demented, half as he’s limited mostly to only using his eyes to create any kind of sense of character.
When he’s going for horror, it’s the vibe that Smith nails, a lot of it thanks to his use of practical effects as Tusk gets weirder and weirder, which should give you some idea as to the audience that will enjoy this. Smith die hards will certainly fall for the consistent potty humor, convenience store punchlines and a liberal use of the word “fuck” as if it makes any pedestrian sentence funnier, while genre fans soak up the absurd horror.
The makeup effects from Robert Kurtzman are perfectly unsettling. In fact, had Smith played this more as a straight horror rather than injecting his constant, now-tiresome juvenile humor, I think Tusk could have been a terrifically disturbing little film.
Not only are the effects impressive, but Smith has also upped his game as a filmmaker, focusing as much on jokes as he does on the actual concept of framing a shot. The crane shot as Wallace walks up to Howard Howe’s darkly lit forest chateau is very impressive, as are the scenes inside Howe’s place with some disturbing cinematography from James Laxton.
Tusk is one of those films I hate to grade as a reviewer. It’s possible to respect a film and the filmmaker’s intentions, but not enjoy the actual film, which is the case here. One reference to The Big Lebowski gave me my only laugh over the course of the 102-minute running time and as unsettling as the horror aspects are, I found myself more respectful of the attempt rather than enjoying what is really just a rather dumb, unfunny horror movie.
