Kevin Smith is best known for his iconic low-budget comedies like Clerks. But with “Tusk” (currently available on Netflix and on the Prime Video channel Home of Horror) in 2014 he also indulged in a trip into the body horror genre, although he didn’t hold back his sense of humor. The very premise of “Tusk” is delightfully whimsical: In it, a podcaster interviews an eccentric sailor who is obsessed with a walrus named Mr. Tusk. A little later, the visitor finds himself tied to a chair, where he is to be transformed piece by piece into a walrus.
›› “Tusk” on Amazon Prime Video*
But as strange as the idea is and as unrestrained as Johnny Depp plays as inspector Guy LaPointe investigating the sailor: “Tusk” was a commercial flop and disappointed both the trade press and the regular audience, as evidenced by the ratings on IMDb (5.3 out of 10) and Rotten Tomatoes (45 percent). We at DashFUN gave the film a moderately positive review with 3 stars, but we didn’t really ask for a sequel either.
SonyPictures
Johnny Depp (with prosthetic nose) in “Tusk”
Still, according to Justin Long, Kevin Smith is said to be seriously working on a sequel, as opposed to the “Tusk” lead actor slash movie explained, “I think they’re doing ‘Tusk 2’. [Kevin Smith] wrote to all of us recently, including Haley [Joel Osment] and genesis [Rodriguez], and he told us he wanted to do it. I thought it was a joke, but then realized he was serious.”
In fact, back in 2020, Kevin Smith talked about a sequel to Tusk on his Twitch channel. He also named a possible action. The original villain Howard (Michael Parks) was killed in Part 1 by protagonist Wallace (Justin Long) after he was put into a walrus body by him. Yet for Part 2, Wallace could escape from his walrus prison and, traumatized by his transformation, now become the perpetrator himself, turning others into walruses.
However, there was no talk of another appearance by Johnny Depp. While his inspector Guy LaPointe would easily fit into the plot, whether the superstar would be willing to volunteer again for such a doomed project is more than questionable. He’s currently working on his acting comeback and it seems unlikely that he’s giving Tusk 2 a thought.
In the end, however, there is a big question with “Tusk” anyway: Who should finance the film? Although the first part only cost three million dollars, it only grossed 1.9 million. So the predecessor does not provide good arguments for an investment. If necessary, Smith could probably finance “Tusk 2” out of his own pocket. But does he really want that? We still doubt that we will ever see a sequel to the walrus horror comedy. Should the project become concrete, we will of course keep you up to date.
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