Tusk
Directed by Kevin Smith
- comedy
- horror
The story
When his best friend and podcast co-host goes missing in the backwoods of Canada, a young guy joins forces with his friend's girlfriend to search for him.
What it’s like
Grimy, low-lit horror-comedy textures: a podcast studio glowing under cheap desk lamps, then the wide, washed-out greens and grey skies of a rural Canadian backwoods where the camera lingers in cramped, dim interiors that feel like they've been left unswept for years. The look is deliberately unpolished, with handheld wobble, flat digital colour and a few gleefully grotesque practical effects that land hard in close-up. The sound is a mix of chatty, overlapping banter and sudden stings, with a creeping, eerie score giving way to odd silences. Its vibe is queasy, absurd and mean-spirited in a playful way, the sort of thing best watched late at night with friends who enjoy a dare. Pacing swings between talky, comic stretches and jolting dread, and the emotional register is cynical and ironic, following a smug pair of men whose self-regard gets steadily punctured. Intensity is high: strong gore, graphic body horror, sustained menace, sharp cruelty and brief sexual references, all played for shock and laughs. Not gentle in any sense. For horror fans who like their comedy nasty, and for viewers who enjoy transgressive, strange films about obsession and bad decisions.
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