TUSK is Misunderstood
Okay, I know what you’re thinking but stay with me on this one.
Tusk (2014) has a bit of a reputation. The first time I heard about this movie was through heavy online scrutiny. Users comparing it to the likes of The Human Centipede (2009) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980), and people claiming it was simply gross body horror and close to “unwatchable”. Searching for the title on social media alone provided me with countless posts mocking it and highlighting all the ways in which they think it sucks.
So obviously I took the bait and watched it.
I was expecting to share a similar sentiment, and find the film boring, badly produced, and a cheap excuse to make some weird gore, but I found myself feeling something very different by the time the credits rolled. I think that somehow, against all odds, this movie was able to capture a very rare and raw feeling.
There is something incredibly disarming about the beginning of the film. It feels like a standard horror comedy, following all the beats of humor of the 2010s. The jokes feel a bit lazy and vulgar, and the plot seems like it is heading in a predictable and steady direction. But there is a shift that occurs about thirty minutes into the movie that launches the tone in a completely different direction.
If you haven’t seen the film, here’s some context:
(spoiler alert)
Tusk follows Wallace Bryton, an American podcaster who as a character is incredibly unlikable. I mean this character was quite literally made to be hated. He exemplifies all the traits of your typical fame hungry, image obsessed “influencers”. With a career based on shock humor and profiting off the pain of others.
He hosts a podcast with his friend Teddy, which is tastefully named the “the not-see party” and is a recurring show where each of them goes out and interviews interesting or eccentric people and then re-tell the story back to the other, who has “not seen” what the other has.
At the beginning of the film, Wallace is heading on a trip to Winnipeg to interview a kid for this podcast who was in a viral video that showed him accidentally severing his leg with a katana, when he arrives at the kid’s house, Wallace discovers that the kid in the video has taken his own life after receiving excessive amounts of bullying online due to his spotlight on the podcast.
Wallace is upset that he cannot get the content for the podcast that he was hoping to and so goes to a local bar to kill some time and try to figure out what his story could be. While in the bar he sees an ad in the bathroom for an old man seeking company with whom to share his stories from his time at sea. Wallace is interested in the prospect of having an interesting story for his show and so he reaches out to the number on the ad and drives up to the creepy spooky scary mansion owned by the old man to spend the night with him and hear his stories.
When Wallace arrives he is treated with great kindness from the man and given tea and a spot by the fire. The two begin chatting and Wallace learns about the man’s time at sea. He is told about a time that he was saved by a walrus which the man affectionately named “Mr. Tusk”, while stranded after a shipwreck. While listening to this story we see Wallace start struggling to stay awake, as it is implied that a sedative may have been put in his tea. Wallace then collapses to the ground as the man watches silently.
When Wallace comes to he is groggy and only half aware of his surroundings. He is sitting in a wheelchair with blankets all around him as he is approached by the old man. He is told that he was bitten by a spider and that the in house doctor has been tending to him but the damage was bad and they had to take some extreme measures. Wallace quickly realizes something is not right and starts doubting what the man is saying.
Wallace is able to shove the blankets off of his legs revealing that one of them has been crudely amputated above the knee.
This part of the movie felt jaw dropping to me the first time that I saw it. The lighthearted joke and comedic nature quickly is exchanged with something brutal. You are face to face with a traumatic situation and you are watching a man react to the course of his life being changed forever, while he is not even fully in his right mind. As he begins reeling with this new horrible information you can feel yourself reeling with him.
The movie only gets more intense from here as it is revealed that Wallace is being held captive and mutilated to be surgically altered and molded with other flesh to physically become a walrus to satisfy his captors need to bring back his savior Mr. Tusk.
Wallace’s transformation continues as he is slowly and brutally trained to behave as a walrus to match his mutilation. And as his friends begin to track down his location and start to realize what disastrous hands he is in, the tension only rises in Wallace’s enclosure. He is now fully encased in fat and flesh and made to look like a walrus, and is being punished each time he exhibits any behavior that is not animalistic.
I, like many others, enjoy a good revenge horror. The movies that set up shallow, dislikable characters and then you get all the joy and satisfaction of watching them get what they deserve. But when I was watching Tusk, none of what I was seeing felt satisfying. I felt bad for Wallace. The suffering that he is enduring is the type of pain you wouldn’t wish on even the very worst person. All of his character setup from the first half of the movie led me to believe that there would be some kind of narrative justice in watching these terrible events unfold around him, but you cant help but feel that he has been utterly and completely wronged.
When help eventually arrives for Wallace it is moments too late. He has finally killed his captor, and in doing so has become filled with an animal-like rage.
The ending feels abrupt. You are then suddenly dropped into a world one year from Wallace’s “rescue” the status of his body has not changed and he remains an animal. He is being kept in a wildlife sanctuary.
You see Wallace’s ex girlfriend Ally and his co-host Teddy visit him together, both obviously still trying to make sense of the situation. Ally tosses him a fish, which prompts him to come out of his enclosure and begin eating ravenously before looking up to see them.
They both look sad and confused at seeing someone so close to them in such an inhuman state. Ally then reflects on her relationship with Wallace and we see a flashback of them talking where she quotes something her grandpa used to say to her:
“Its okay to cry, that’s what separates us from the animals. It shows that you have a soul.”
It cuts back to Wallace and he lets out a human sounding groan and we see Ally get visibly upset as she cannot see him as the person that he was any longer.
Ally tells Wallace that she loves him while her eyes fill with tears and she leaves the sanctuary for the last time. As Ally and Teddy leave we see a tear fall down what’s left of Wallace’s face, and he begins to make noises that sound close to sobbing as he retreats into his shelter.
Overall, Tusk surprised me. It is expertly toeing the line between hilarious, ridiculous, and deeply thought-provoking.
It gave me the impression that it would be comparable to The Cabin in the Woods (2011) or Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, films more comedy than horror, with the plus of being jam packed with gory moments. But Tusk was something different. The final scene left me feeling sad, confused, and overly contemplative. By leaning into the story and looking past its bizarre nature you are able to truly appreciate a movie that has more that meets the eye. An interesting take on what it takes to be an animal and what it means to be human.
Also I will literally never be able to look at a walrus the same way again.