Kevin Smith returning to horror with Tusk; announces pre-production

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

This could be the strangest story you will read all week.

CLERKS director Kevin Smith may be best known for his comedies but he proved himself a very capable storyteller when he decided to dabble in the horror business with 2011's RED STATE, a rewarding but polarizing film that featured an impressive performance from the great Michael Parks. If you have been holding your breath for Smith to return to our genre you can breathe easy as it appears he has something quite twisted in the works.

During Smith's traditional panel at Comic-Con, the filmmaker revealed that, after conversing about it with his producer Scott Mosier on their popular podcast series Smodcast, he had written a horror film called TUSK based on a real newspaper article he had read and yesterday he revealed via Twitter that the movie is in pre-production.

Describing the film as a "cuddly version of THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE", the story is based on the strange true tale of a man who was lost at sea for six months with a walrus and, after returning, puts out an ad looking for a roommate. That doesn't sound too scary itself, but one of the stipulations for the resident required the person to wear a walrus costume for 2 hours a day, acting like his aquatic friend. And that's where it gets weird.

On Saturday, Smith told a crowd at Hall H of Comic-Con that the 85-page script was “the most f**ked-up, absurd movie ever” and that he has already sent the script to his RED STATE star Michael Parks. Even better, Smith claims that he has sent the script to none other than Quentin Tarantino, who he envisions playing the role of the victim!

Smith has also said of the script…

“This is like a sister to Red State but with no politics, no religion whatsoever, but it’s just unsettling."

A tale of a man being surgically altered into a walrus? Yep, I'd say that's rather unsettling. But I can totally see it working.

According to Smith's Twitter, the film is scheduled to go before the cameras in September, so we'll keep you posted on news regarding this crazy sounding flick.

RED STATE's Michael Parks