Fantastic Fest 2014: TUSK – The Review

Kevin Smith’s second venture into horror camp – the use of camp is not an accident – may seem like a grand departure for him on the surface, but make no mistake, Smith is still in his comfortable and safe wheelhouse. TUSK is without a doubt a Kevin Smith film to the extent that his fans will glorify it as his new crowning achievement and critics will roll their eyes and claim it as a pompous excuse of horror deconstruction. Neither are fairly accurate but both descriptions will give you an idea of how divided audiences will be on this one. This reviewer included.

Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) co-hosts a podcast comedy show called the “Not-See Party.” His show leads him to travel to Canada to interview new internet star “The Kill Bill Kid” – a naïve teen who accidentally cut off his leg while swinging around a katana. Upon his arrival to the great white north, Wallace learns that the kid committed suicide; leaving Wallace scrambling for a new story for the podcast. Fate intervenes one night when a flier hanging in a Canadian bar tells of a guy looking for companionship and to share stories of his adventures and travels. Wallace ventures out to the home of Howard Howe (Michael Parks). As you can expect, the strange Howard Howe isn’t exactly who he seems, and his idea of companionship may include an unhealthy fascination with a walrus that once saved his life.

Justin Long delivers another great performance. His horror reputation is continuing to grow between this, DRAG ME TO HELL, and JEEPERS CREEPERS. He nails the helpless terrifying victim role, while also giving the audience someone sympathetic to root for. Michael Parks is equally intense. This is the second horror feature team-up between Parks and Smith – first being the political horror/action film RED STATE. His deliberately slow cadence and expressionistic eyes gives the early proceedings uneasiness and occasionally tense. We know what’s coming but Parks and Smith slowly reveal their hand in typical horror fashion.

Lengthy periods of the film are dedicated to humorous anecdotes and long-winded ramblings. So often many of the scenes go on for far too long. Smith pads the film to a 100 minute feature and the feeling is evident. It’s a silly idea to begin with, but the fact that so much effort is put into selling the idea to the audience that the exuded energy put into it all may be equally as silly. Yes, the film presents a story that was originally conceived on Smith’s Smodcast; that wouldn’t be the problem if it weren’t a joke without a proper punch line.

Smith mainly plays the horror straight but then treats the eventual monstrous situation as more of a joke. It’s so much of a sight-gag when it finally appears that Smith and cinematographer James Laxton even reveals the first appearance of the creature to the audiences in a jokey quick zoom-out – revealing “him” in a sideshow circus-like fashion. The shifts between horror and comedy are shaky at best. The overall tone of the film is always in a state of flux that might leave some viewers struggling to find their footing. It’s a bizarre film masking as a HUMAN CENTIPEDE send-up (which in and of its self was a black horror satire), but the levels of bizarre reach a new high in the last third of the film when an extended cameo pushes the film even further off the horror trail into absolute absurdity.

Smith’s strongpoint is his dialogue and witty characters. It’s to be expected that jokes work here as well. Most are at the expense of his lovable loser leading men or Canadian stereotypes (What’s that a-boot?). That being said, a couple of laughs feel like just a couple of laughs when you have them buried in an excessive pile of dialogue and needless scenes. You could argue that TUSK has a good idea buried somewhere in its hollow walrus suit, but as the end credits roll and we hear the audio of Smith and his Smodcast co-host giggling over the telling of this exact story, you feel like Smith and his pals are all in on a joke at the expense of the audience to turn a ridiculous concept into an even more ridiculous film.

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5