TUSK (2014)

[GRWelsh]

I just watched this. I remember listening to the Smodcast in the summer of 2013 when they first came up with this idea. At that time I was burning through podcasts because I still had a 30 minute commute each way. They pretty much stuck to the outline they came up with that day for the actual movie. I don't think it is much of a spoiler to say the premise: a crazy guy tries to turn someone else into a walrus, by means of amputation, surgical alteration, etc. The movie comes across as very similar to THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE: THE FIRST SEQUENCE (2009), but with the addition of attempts at humor that fell flat (like the "Not-See party" they kept referencing... ugh). TUSK had a tonal problem in that it couldn't decide whether to be horror or dark comedy. I can't really recommend either movie... Although medical horror is a solid premise, these feel like the result of silly "What if?" discussions among friends. I like Kevin Smith but he should stick to humor. In TUSK, the protagonist was like an asshole version of Kevin Smith who wasn't funny, so that didn't work. And the villain's insanity was cartoonish and not plausible.

For gaming inspiration, the idea of transforming people into monsters has very old fantasy roots.

[geneweigel]

I thought it was a science premise delivered by an arts major. Not anywhere in the realm of what would happen if this happened in the last 1000 years even if they had magical augmentation of the physical body there is no way humans can become animals mentally by force. There would have to be an explanation some kind of chemical treatment. Its almost like a child's story thats told by a child but then added to by an extremely self-conscious, uneducated and vile adult trying to tell their life story in a dumb analogy.