The 2014 horror comedy about a man surgically transformed into a horrifying human-walrus hybrid has earned a solid cult following for nearly a decade - but it turns out that Tusk was actually based on a true story.
Thankfully, the claim within Kevin Smith’s movie isn't 100% accurate - nobody was actually turned into a walrus by an eccentric serial killer but it's not entirely fictional either.
The film follows podcaster, Wallace (Justin Long), who travels to meet a recluse, unaware of the fact that he has a morbid obsession with walruses - no prizes for guessing what happens next.
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Wallace is drugged and painfully transformed into the tusked beast by serial killer, Howard Howe.
It seems the flick was actually inspired by a prank online advertisement by writer Chris Parkinson from Brighton.
The ad sees an old man offer a room in his house rent-free with one stipulation - the tenant has to occasionally dress up as and act like a walrus.
While he wasn't expecting to hear anything and soon forgot his joke, he received a massive 400 responses from people willing to go walrus to live rent free - and that captured Smith's attention.
So the 'real events' they're talking about are the ad and its responses, not the Frankenstein's Monster marine mammal.
Parkinson revealed he never actually intended to turn a human being into a walrus.
But rather than a prank ad, Tusk tells the story of a Los Angeles podcaster Wallace and his co-host, Teddy (Haley Joel Osment), ridiculing unfortunate people in viral videos.
For an interview with a teenager who mistakenly cut off his own leg, Wallace has to go to the outskirts of Manitoba, Canada - but he's already died by suicide because of the ridicule.
As karma would have it, he finds a flyer posted by an old man who is perfect podcast fodder: but the flyer does not mention a walrus and isn't a joke but a lure by serial killer, Howe (Michael Parks).
Howe is a retired sailor who killed and ate a walrus that saved his life.
To act out giving his saviour a chance to live, he disfigures victims and surgically transforms them into the human walrus, which he named Mr. Tusk before reenacting their time together.
The stomach-churning movie has been labelled ‘worse than The Human Centipede’, which also features some horrific surgical experiments and depictions of brutal body modifications to satisfy a surgeon's deranged fantasy.
Viewers have been left ‘literally traumatised’ after watching the film.
TikToker Heidi Wong took to the platform to share her thoughts on the movie.
Creating a series of videos in response to Tusk, she said: “Out of all the horror movies that I’ve seen, this one gets to me the most.
“This movie was worse than The Human Centipede to me.”
In one video dwelling on the ending (turn away now for spoilers), she said: “Me watching a guy who was forced to be surgically turned into a walrus finally escape, only for his friends to put him in a zoo to live the rest of his life as an actual walrus.”
Commenters said they couldn't look at the animal in the same way anymore, with one writing: “After knowing about this movie and seeing clips I can never see walruses the same anymore."
Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film, Weird
Amelia Jones