You'd be surprised how much mileage writer/director Kevin Smith managed to get out of the offbeat concept of turning Justin Long into a walrus.
Extrapolating from a concept that originated on one of his podcasts, Smith's Tusk is a horror fable about an egotistical podcaster named Wallace Bryton (Long) who's kidnapped, drugged and surgically transformed (by a deranged retiree named Howard Howe, played by veteran actor Michael Parks) into said creature whilst in the backwoods of Manitoba trying to gather content for his show.
From my full review:
Extrapolating from a concept that originated on one of his podcasts, Smith's Tusk is a horror fable about an egotistical podcaster named Wallace Bryton (Long) who's kidnapped, drugged and surgically transformed (by a deranged retiree named Howard Howe, played by veteran actor Michael Parks) into said creature whilst in the backwoods of Manitoba trying to gather content for his show.
From my full review:
3 out of 5. Despite its inherent goofiness and wayward attempts at humor, Tusk manages to strike a nerve with its disturbing take on the creature feature. But much of that success owes to Justin Long and Michael Parks, who rarely veer into parody with their performances. If Kevin Smith were to take a cue from them for his next stab at the genre, it's almost a certainty that the results would chill moviegoers to the bone. As it stands, this movie is still a worthwhile curiosity for fans — either of horror or of Kevin Smith — to seek out. You may even be surprised by how genuinely creepy it can be when it wants to.
