Kevin Smith is trying his hand at horror, and so far it looks like he could be as gifted with this as he is with his comedies. The film, entitled Tusk, features Justin Long as a podcaster who is held captive and tormented into becoming a human walrus by one of his interviewees. Though the description sounds preposterous, the trailer is actually crazy disturbing. Perhaps the best part: while Smith is so far away from his trademark genre, we don’t miss out on any of his amazing wit.
The idea for this ingenious film actually came from a Gumtree.com ad that he shared on his “Smodcast”, a podcast that he hosts with Scott Mosier, back in June of 2013. In the listing an older gentleman is looking for a lodger who, in exchange for living in his house rent-free, would be willing to dress up and act like a walrus for about two hours a day. Evidently the man had befriended a walrus while living alone on St. Lawrence Island for three years of his life. He shares that this friendship was the most rewarding relationship he ever had. For the next half hour or so, Smith and Mosier proceed to develop this man’s odd request into almost exactly the same story as the Tusk we are all looking forward to seeing on September 19th.
