It Came From the Cinema: Tusk (2014)

"Let us find out if at the dark heart of every man....if he is truly...a walrus" 

So now I do the first "It Came from the Cinema" review which, unlike my Now Playing Cinema reviews, are based on my home viewings. This means that you the viewer don't have to drive out but can stay in and watch in your preferred manner of movie watching. 

Anyways. 

Tusk 

oh god. 

Tusk!!

Kevin Smith (of Clerks fame) wrote and directed this first part of the "True North" film Trilogy known as Tusk. 

And honestly....this is a film that may not get the best review from me. Not because it was bad. It was not a bad movie. Its just.....if you like horror. If you like psycho path serial killers and most importantly if you like Canada....this is a movie to watch. 

But be warned. You will never unsee what you see in this movie. 

I watched this movie because a friend of mine also wanted to watch it. She and I got all cozy with me on the floor and her on the coach ready for what we thought as a funny dark romp of a man wanting to make a person into a Walrus. 

It was a silly concept that was an entertaining thought which allows the viewer to be taken a back from the fact that this movie will freak you the hell out. 

The story starts off with Justin Long playing as "Wallace", a now successful podcaster who is co-started by the sad marshmallow remains of Haley Joel Osment. Wallace leaves to go interview his latest "joke" he found on the internet and flies from LA to Canada. Once there (and after a fantastic case of banter between Long and Youtube star Harley Morenstein of Epic Meal Time fame) Long realizes that his interviewee has killed himself. Now stuck in Canada, a fateful ad in a the local bathroom leads him to "Pippy Hill" and the eccentric old man who has man stories to tell, Howard Howe played by Michael Parks (Kill Bill).  Justin Long and Michael Parks first time meeting each other is a captivating sequence as Long's character is reckless and young while Park's delivery of the stories from meeting Hemingway during D-Day to the almost romantic telling of his walrus penis bone on the mantel. Long's character is drugged during this by the tea he is served and as he falls to the floor (quite well might I add) the darker side of Howard Howe is revealed in his whisper..... 

"Its going to be okay....Mr. Tusk" 

From then on, we get flashback sequences to explain the rise of Wallace's career at the same time the falling of his relationship with is girlfriend Ally who is played by Genesis Rodrigeuz (who also voiced Honey Lemon in the animated feature Big Hero 6).  As flashbacks show us the audience how Wallace is kind of...well...a sell-out asshole, Ally is cheating on him (mostly because he's sleeping around already) for Teddy (the Haley Joel Osment role) who is kind of just going with it because he has....well...I guess "truer feelings" for Ally. It just kind of hit me that we don't really know why Teddy is so okay with having his best friend's girl go for him. It wasn't out of spite...hmm..interesting. 

((just a warning readers...I do get sidetracked sometimes)) 

Anyways...while those flashbacks are going on (and beware..it gets a little spoiler from here) we see the sickening story between Wallace and Howard. Howard cuts off one of Wallace's legs (and poorly blames it on a spider) and surely and uncomfortably turning him into walrus. If you ever wanted to see how one can turn a human into a full on Walrus and you aren't squeamish...these scenes will make you squeamish. The movie isn't exactly gore but it can get a little uncomfortable mostly because Michael Parks nails down this role of Howard who is is a broken man deep down due to him being an orphan that pretty much was a child sex doll growing up that ran away to the sea. On one of his sea voyages he gets lost at sea and befriends a walrus who he lives with and falls in love with, claiming that the bond he shared with "Mr. Tusk was more real than any human relationship is capable of." Once Wallace is in his "Walrus Suit" (which is made by..get this....the skin of humans that Howard has killed over the years) Howard keeps Wallace in an enclosure and conditions him to become a Walrus. The reason why he is doing is later revealed to be a way for closure since Howard apparently before he was rescued had killed his beloved Mr. Tusk and regretted it deeply, feeling that he didn't give Mr. Tusk a fighting chance. The conclusion to this is Wallace (now Mr. Tusk) fighting Howard to test Howard's theory of which life is better, being a man or a walrus.

Johnny Depp (oddly enough my second review features this actor again) is in this movie as a homicide detective named  Guy Lapointe who is looking for Howe, known to him as the "First Wife Killer" because the remains of Howe's victims always have one leg, holes in the jaws, and the tongue cut out. This character's presence returns the comedy to an other wise grim and morbid horror film. Depp is hilarious. I haven't enjoyed his performance like this since Rango.  I love this character and I look forward and am excited that Guy Lapointe will also appear in the second part of the "True North Trilogy" in the upcoming Yoga Hosers which stars two characters from this film as well. The amazingly attractive clerks at the "eh to zed" connivence store are respectively Kevin Smith and Johnny Depp's daughters.

I have talked to some friends about this movie and it seems that the ending might be the only weakness to this film..since it is a kind of unorthodox ending and you will understand it if you remember a scene where Ally and Jason (before he's a walrus) talk about crying and how it is okay to cry because it separates us from the animals. The ending is played on that idea.

To conclude, Tusk might be my favorite thriller / horror film for 2014. The performance done by Michael Parks is creepy, clever, and morbid and even though you will squirm in your seat you will not gaze anywhere else when he starts to speak or move. Justin Long I feel like should be consider some very good acting, since the later half of him is in the Walrus suit. And its nice to see Haley again....it just makes me sad how big his face is now. Sorry Haley, I'm not trying to be mean. You did good in this movie.

Henry Rating:
8.5 / 10
"I wasn't expecting this as an answer to that question of is it better to be man or walrus. But I guess that is how life works...its harsh and real and full of surprises. And quite a bit of fish."

Hope you enjoy the review!

Later Gators,
The Mad Man in the Cheap Seats