Tusk (2014) feat. Naomi Osborn and Sean Childers

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
When he's going on about poutine, the poutine, he weenies, the poutine, he weenies.

(00:04):
I didn't know about poutine till I spent a summer in upstate New York.
I love it now, but it's for those of you who don't know.
It's like french fries lathered in gravy.
It's really good, but, you know, it can mess you up.
As Gila Point was was was talking about.
So I found that funny.
Shouldn't have had that second slider.

(00:42):
Hello and welcome to Camp Kaidu Monster Movie Podcast.
We are hosts Vincent Hannum and Matt Levine.
And we're talking about all our favorite monster movies,
the good, the bad and the downright campy and asking if they stand the test of time.
Traditional kaiju creature features, space invaders, the supernatural and everything in between.

(01:03):
All strange beasts.
Welcome here.
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty,
your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers.
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services.
Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.

(01:26):
Links in the show notes.
You can help me.
I was abducted.
Your life as you knew it is over, Mr. Brighton.
This guy wants to turn me into an animal.
I'm so scared.

(01:49):
Tusk.
Rated R.
It's so weird doing like a podcast thing, considering this movie we're going to talk about.
There's a lot that I would love to talk to you, Matt, about.
But let us welcome our guests for this evening.
Naomi Osborne and Sean Childers.

(02:10):
Thanks for having me.
I'm Naomi Osborne.
I have been on Camp Kaiju before.
I'm known for my trivia.
I host a local trivia event in Minneapolis called Film Friends.
It's the first Monday of every month at Indeed Brewery in Northeast.
So a lot of people come down for that and it's a lot of fun.

(02:31):
You guys have always such good movies, such good pics.
I haven't been back since the holiday episode that was kind of like a party, like a digital party.
It was really fun.
And when Tusk came up, I was just like, man, I would love a recent to rewatch that movie.
I think this was the third time I had seen it, though, because I rewatched it in preparation for this.

(02:53):
Anyway, super excited.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you so much.
So my name is Sean.
I am also a podcaster, but I guess you could say that I'm an amateur podcaster.
I'm still fixing my camera here.
Sorry. There we go.
I have two.

(03:14):
You're going to see me in the dark here.
Make it really creepy.
I have two podcasts that I work on.
One is called Toku for two, which is focusing on the Toku Satsu genre of media,
like Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, all the stuff like that.
But then that one's currently on hiatus.
And I have another one that I'm working on called Big Mecca, but not huge.

(03:35):
It's a name that I stole from one of my best friends where he goes like big guys, but not huge because kind of bigger dudes.
But, you know, big Mecca, but not huge.
Why not? Yeah.
What's the focus of that?
So that one is mainly about different media involving robots of any kind of nature,
whether it's like the different things in Matrix or the one that we're doing our current season on,

(04:00):
which is the anime Metabots.
We're just trying to go through different things each season.
Unfortunately, it's also kind of turned into a Transformers podcast.
So we're focusing on those from worse to worse to sometimes better.
But, you know, we'll see where we're going from there.
That's a lot of fun.
Where can we find your podcast?

(04:21):
So you can get it on any kind of podcast server, whether it's audio or, you know, through Spotify,
or you can actually check it out on YouTube.
We have it to where it's very basic.
You can see a lot of different pictures on there or just a static image.
I get kind of confused as to which one I want to do.
Yeah, nice. All right.

(04:43):
Well, this is going to be a great conversation.
I've talked to some of you already offline last night.
I think we might have.
Naomi, Matt.
You guys were watching this movie last night, right?
Yeah, indeed.
Sean, were you watching it last night?
Nope, I watched it last week while trying to go to the gym on separate days,

(05:03):
hoping nobody actually saw my screen.
Oh, risky business.
OK, did that motivate you to like exercise more rigor, more rigorously?
Or did it like not really have any impact on that?
I'm curious.
The only aspect that was motivational was probably when you see the walrus for the first time.

(05:26):
And it was trying to make me hold my sides to not laugh as hard as I was while doing the treadmill.
OK, you're on the treadmill.
I thought you were in the in the pool.
Oh, no, people could just like walk by and see it.
And I'm like holding it, you know, making sure nobody else can actually see it as they pass by.
That's what they get. They should, you know, like if you're looking at the screen, you're taking a risk.

(05:48):
You know, you might see the bus coming.
It should also be public awareness as to not watch those kind of movies in public, but it's all right.
Yeah, yeah.
I always admire people who do watch movies like this in public.
So good for you. That's what I think.
We'll get to some nuts and bolts here in a little bit. But, Matt, how are you doing?

(06:08):
I'm doing pretty well. I went back to Milwaukee for a friend's bachelor party this weekend, which was fun.
And then, yeah, I came back and watched Tusk.
It was a very surreal end to the weekend.
There was a lot of shenanigans earlier for the bachelor party.
And then like this movie, Tusk seemed like an appropriately sort of ominous like end to the weekend, you know.

(06:32):
But yeah, no, aside from that, not too much going on.
That's great. How are you doing?
Long day of teaching, changing lives out there.
Is this going to be part of your like college monster movie club that you sort of lead?
Only if I've decided I want to go out in a blaze of glory.
I will show students this movie and then quit.

(06:55):
Rubber then Tusk.
That would be a good double feature, actually.
Yeah, I feel like you could warm up any students with like Kevin Smith's earlier work.
Although maybe I'm just speaking as an elder millennial, like I grew up loving Kevin Smith.
I even got his autograph once at the University of Wyoming.

(07:16):
But I maybe can see that would not enjoy the Kevin Smith brand of humor from the late 90s.
So to actually try to support that a little bit, one of my friends who is considered a Gen Z,
when I was working back over in retail at the time, I was trying to get people to watch Clerks back in the day.

(07:38):
It's like maybe five years ago. No, sorry.
I've been I've been away from there too long. Ten years ago.
And I actually got this person who was 17, 18, don't remember, and they ended up watching Clerks.
They said, oh, yeah, Clerks is a great movie. Clerks, too. And not so much.
I'm like, how? But it's all right.
I would love to talk more about Kevin Smith's filmography as we go along here.

(08:01):
And because I've heard great things about Clerks, too, and and mixed things overall.
But I think that's part of the the fascinating subject of Tusk and where it fits in his filmography
and his style and his aesthetic and how it's similar, but also completely different than anything else he's done.

(08:26):
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
And just like I was talking to Sean about this before you guys got on,
but I was not really aware of like the true North trilogy that Tusk is a part of until I kind of like.
But it makes sense that Kevin Smith makes movies like that.
He's got his view of the universe, you know, and he's got his little, you know, bad Canadian accent like Tusk universe.

(08:52):
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think only two movies have been made in that trilogy so far. Right.
But the third one, Moose Jaws, is still in the works as far as I know.
It works. He just recently said at a tour of some sort,
I think one of his evening with Kevin Smith's work, he said, yeah, we were going to do Moose Jaws.

(09:12):
And then we were going to do Tusk, too.
But I think I'm going to go ahead and merge them both together.
Well, I can envision that it seems to.
Yeah, I've been to it. Yeah.
All right. All right. Let's get through these nuts and bolts and then that we can really open up the conversation.
So thank you all listeners for hanging out.

(09:33):
Please rate and review wherever you listen to Camp Kaiju.
Send us listener comments. Camp Kaiju at Gmail dot com or Instagram.
Or if you'd like to be a featured voice on the show, Sean's a big fan of that.
Leave a voicemail at 612-470-2612.
Tell us what you think about Tusk. Tell us what you think about Kevin Smith.

(09:55):
Does Tusk really scratch your itch?
I don't know if that's the best thing to say, but please check out our website.
There you go. Camp Kaiju podcast dot com for more reviews and special content.
We have some cool new merch, a Nick Adams fan club t-shirt.
Check that out. Camp Kaiju dot threadless dot com.

(10:17):
Become a patron. That's really the best sweet deal you can get here at Patreon dot com slash Camp Kaiju.
You can get discounts on said merchandise, priority comments, live events.
You can get VIP. And what that means is coming up in May.
And Naomi, you could speak more to this in a little bit, but Matt and I are going to.

(10:43):
Guest star guest host your.
A film friends movie trivia. Yeah, I'm super excited.
I've never had two people, so I'm excited to kind of think like how that's going to work.
And I know you guys are going to bring like, you know, a lot of your great insights
and a lot of like your fun energy to the event.
And I'm super excited, like I think it's going to be awesome.

(11:07):
So excited. Yeah, I can't wait. Yeah, I can't even wait to hear you guys' ideas and like brainstorm and like.
So I think it's going to be awesome. And, you know, I hope some people come out from your world to to the trivia and see you guys do your thing.
Like, I think it'll be wonderful.
I would love to attend, but unfortunately, I'm still in central Florida.

(11:28):
I haven't been able to get out all day.
Well, maybe in the future, you know, some some Monday of the future.
And one day, Sean, you will we will buy you a drink alcoholic or not,
because that's the perk for our patrons at our trivia event with Naomi.
If you show up, if you're a fan of Camp Kaiju or if you're a patron.

(11:51):
Of Camp Kaiju, we'll we'll we'll buy a drink.
That's killer. I love that. And like, we'll have all kinds of good prizes, too.
You know, we're sponsored by the Trilon Cinema, the Heights Theatre and Indeed.
So it's a lot of, you know, free movie tickets like swag, all kinds of good stuff that movie lovers like.

(12:13):
And since it's free to play, you know, anyone can come on by.
So it's always a good time. I really enjoy your trivia so much.
And just to confirm the timing, it's the first Monday of every month at Indeed Brewing, right?
Yeah, that's right. We started seven thirty.
It fills up pretty fast. So I try to tell people to get there around seven,

(12:34):
you know, so they can build their table and get comfy with their team, get their drinks, whatever.
Yeah, but it goes about seven thirty to nine thirty.
And we usually socialize before and after. So it's a real fun event.
The community is pretty tight. We've been doing it for just over two years.
So mostly regulars keep coming, but we get new people all the time.

(12:56):
And it's just awesome.
Like, I like to feature different guests, co-hosts every single month.
So I can give varying perspectives and tastes represented, not just my own.
And people have really responded to it. And I love seeing what people come up with.
And I think you guys are going to be great.
Thank you, Naomi. Yeah, I love I love that sense of community you're talking about.

(13:18):
So thank you to our patrons who make it all possible.
Sean, first and foremost, you're here.
Another perk of being a patron at Sean's level, kind of the at the upper tier,
is to suggest a movie.
And what do you know, Sean, you suggested Tusk.
I know such thing.

(13:42):
Deny it all you want.
We'll talk more about that.
But other shout outs to Chris, Jason, our anonymous patron and Peggy.
Thank you. OK.
Here's a fun thing where we can each pick a movie that was released in February.

(14:02):
The monster movie. I have a list here.
Each of you, let's just pick one movie just to highlight.
For whatever reason, you're feeling it.
For me, I'm going to go with the Stepford Wives from nineteen seventy five.
I just recently wrote a trivia category of February's that was called Electric Love.

(14:26):
And it was all about, you know, that kind of like merger of, you know, robots and film
love, like for two varying degrees of seriousness.
And I had never seen the original Stepford Wives, only the remake with Nicole Kidman.
I've also been watching a lot of her films lately because the trial on was showing them

(14:47):
and Criterion had a block as well.
But it was good. I enjoyed it very much.
It had a lot of good vibe from the era it came out.
And I had never seen it.
So I was glad to see that one.
That's a great pick. It's been on my radar for a while, because same as you,
I've only seen the more recent one, but I know it's a it's a classic.

(15:07):
Yeah. And I have that actress,
her name, Catherine Ross, I think, who is in The Graduate.
Yeah. So she's really good in that kind of gets to stretch your legs a little bit
as an actress and that sweet.
I've never seen the original.
That's a good reminder that I have to do that.
Yeah. I've only seen the Nicole Kidman one. Yeah.

(15:30):
Well, I'll go next.
I am going to I'm going to represent the Kaiju in this list.
There's a movie called Reptilicus from 1961,
and it is a Danish film.
It's a so bad, it's good type of giant monster movie
about a, you know, a Leviathan that rampages through

(15:52):
the the countryside of Denmark.
Cool. So like a lot of devastated, you know, tulip fields and windmills
and what have you.
Just kidding. That's all I know about that part of the world.
Sounds terrifying. Yeah.
All the tulips are missing. Why?

(16:16):
Are not to be that guy, but
those are the Dutch with tulips.
Oh, my apologies.
I don't know. Apologies to our Danish listeners.
Yes. No, no offense.
Let me help back you up on that.
There's a lot on this list that I've never seen that I really have wanted to

(16:37):
for a long time. And Reptilicus is another one that's just been like
floating around my brain for years, but I've never actually watched.
So another good reminder of a movie that I have to see.
What do you got, Matt?
Yeah, I'll go. I'll go next.
I think I have to shout out House on Haunted Hill from 1959,
directed by William Castle, the one and only schlock meister William Castle,

(16:59):
starring Vincent Price as well as Elisha Cook Jr., a really good
ensemble of kind of horror movie actors.
And I watched this movie when I was probably about 10 years old with my dad.
And it's I don't think it really holds up as being very scary.
But like when you're a kid and you watch it, it's like it's really silly

(17:19):
and also one of the scariest movies that you've ever seen.
Or at least it was for me when I was 10 years old.
So it's really fun.
It's the kind of movie that has a bunch of like
novelty, like publicity gimmicks that William Castle did a lot.
Like when I was first playing in theaters, they would have like
skeletons flying around on like strings and stuff like that to scare the audience.

(17:41):
Which, I mean, I haven't seen it that way, but it's it's a classic B movie,
you know, pretty ridiculous, but but a lot of fun at the same time.
Totally agree.
I've only seen the remake of that, and I think I saw that when I was a kid as well.
Just I don't remember anything about it.
You're going to find out about this entire thing.

(18:01):
I have a really bad memory.
I think it's good to be a movie fan with a bad memory
because you can rewatch stuff all the time and it's like seeing it
for the first time all over again.
You're absolutely right.
And I have no further follow up on that.
Same poetic.
I love it.
So I'm looking at this list here

(18:22):
and there's a lot that I've wanted to watch, but I never have.
Like I've always I finally watched the first fly two years ago.
Fantastic movie. Gross as heck, but really lovely.
Oh, yeah.
But then I keep on reading things about fly, too, and I'm like,
mmm, I don't know.

(18:42):
Murder Cycle sounds amazing.
I'm assuming it's a motorcycle that's about, you know,
a haunted motorcycle that just goes around killing people.
I only included it based on the title.
Never heard of it. But Murder Cycle.
It sounds amazing.
Let's let's giddy up.
But the one thing that I've never heard of is
the one I've only seen two out of these.
I've seen Diary of the Dead and I've seen Nightmare on Elbe Street 3,

(19:05):
The Dream Warriors.
Which one is better?
Let's find out.
It's actually Nightmare on Elbe Street 3.
Diary of the Dead.
Just to touch on that real quick.
It's a found footage movie,
but it moves just like the dead do in that very, very slowly.
It's not paced very well.
It's just all around.

(19:27):
It's an interesting thing to look at,
but to actually take in as a movie on its own,
it's kind of boring.
But Dream Warriors.
Absolutely fantastic.
It's one of the Wes Craven written and directed ones, I believe.
And that movie, if you are a fan of Freddy and Nightmare on Elbe Street in general,
it's probably one of the best.

(19:48):
Maybe takes second fiddle to A New Nightmare, but so good.
Yeah, I love that one too.
That one's really good.
He kind of starts to develop the Freddy that he becomes later
and that people sort of know in that one.
I have a question about one of these.
Is Dead Alive from 93?

(20:09):
Is that the Peter Jackson brain dead, AKA brain dead?
Yeah, yeah.
I love that film.
I love that movie.
It's like my favorite movie to watch with a crowd.
Have a group of friends over and just watch all like just chaos break loose.
It's such a fun movie.
I love that movie.
Just as a side note.

(20:30):
That's so great.
Yeah.
And so creatively disgusting.
I love it as well.
Totally.
And it's nice.
Funny.
You look at movies that were released in January and February.
That's kind of the quiet time.
It's like you release a movie that time of year.
People aren't really thinking awards.
They're not thinking blockbuster.
They're not thinking, you know, holiday weekend.

(20:53):
So it's always kind of funny to see what movies crop up in January and February, you know, that were released.
It sort of is telling how they thought it would do.
Do you think that's changed in most recent years?
Do I think it's changed?
No, I think it.
Well, actually, maybe.
I don't know.
I'd have to think about it.
It's always been sort of the the rule of the industry, but I would have to think about it.

(21:16):
It might change now with streaming and stuff like that.
Yeah, I don't know.
Certainly, you know, December was always like a tie.
They've been releasing things in December more and more as years have gone by.
I don't know.
That's an interesting thought.
I don't know.
It is interesting because I know I mean, blockbuster releases have been creeping up earlier and earlier into the calendar.

(21:40):
I don't know.
In the past 10 years, we saw Godzilla Kong last year in March, I think.
Yep.
So I don't know.
Ten years from now, maybe it's a February release.
Yeah.
Who knows?
I feel like in the past, there have always been a lot of horror movies released around this time of year because like probably studios don't expect them to do very well.

(22:01):
But like horror has been really popular recently.
And I feel like there have been a lot of really good prestige kind of horror movies that have been released around February over the last couple of years.
Like It Follows, that was kind of a long time ago at this point, but that was released in February under the skin that Scarlett Johansson movie came on February of whatever year it was released in.
So it's one of my favorite times to go to a theater because you tend to see some like pretty cool under the radar horror movies, although that's kind of becoming less under the radar these days, I think.

(22:30):
That's absolutely true.
Yeah. What a great observation. Like February has such a bad reputation for being cold and short and weird. And I don't know. Maybe I just carry that because my birthday is in the middle of February.
So I love thinking that maybe there's some, you know, some good movies to look forward to.
Happy early birthday.
Happy early birthday.
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I'll be 38 in a few days.

(22:55):
Awesome.
Happy.
Yeah. Just joining in. Happy early birthday.
Just to make a little fun here, Naomi, I turned 37 this year, so I could I could actually say 37 in a row.
What?
Clers.
Oh, sorry.
It's been decades.
All right. I'm now five.
Yeah, sorry. It's been a long time.

(23:17):
All right. Well, coming up on Camp Kaiju, we have Dracula's Daughters, our next episode. And then following that is back to Godzilla, the Heisei era with Godzilla versus Mothra, the battle for Earth.
So an early 90s Godzilla flick with Mothra and we're excited for that. Mothra March Madness.

(23:40):
Cool. Sounds good.
Four years ago in this quiet forest in this cozy cabin, something happened.
Something so frightening.
Something so deadly.
We prayed it would never happen again.

(24:03):
Now from the creator of Evil Dead comes Evil Dead 2 Dead by Dawn.
Five, six, grab your crucifix. Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. Nine, ten.

(24:34):
A nightmare on Elm Street Part 3. Phrase just around the corner.
Because how do you kill something that's already dead?
Trimark Picture presents a modern masterpiece of horror.

(24:58):
Your mother ate my dog!
Dead Alive.
Party's over.
Okay, now let's get to Tusk.
What are our personal histories with this film?

(25:24):
Sean, you have a big grin on your face. This was your pick.
Alright, lean into it, brother. Own it.
So first off, this is gonna be shocking, but I am one of the original hashtag Walrus yes tweeters.
Oh. Yeah. Did I support it beyond that? Of course I did. I went and saw it in theaters.

(25:47):
I went and grabbed my big mecha but not huge co-host Wilhelm with me.
And he initially said, yeah, if this is gonna end up anything like Human Centipede, I don't want to watch it and I'm gonna stop being your friend.
Little did he know he would actually love this movie.
I adore this movie. I've watched it multiple times when I managed to get it on the retail release.

(26:11):
I forced all of my old co-workers to watch it with me and then they all systematically one by one left my house in shambles.
Just utterly confused and hated every moment of it, but I don't care. That's one and more converts.
I've managed to actually get other people at my current job to watch it and they say interesting, but they actually like it.

(26:33):
So that's all that matters to me.
As we go on through this, I noticed that you got notes in here regarding it and I definitely want to touch on those because you will hear
towards the end of the movie where he actually is on his podcast episode where he goes over how the movie came about.

(26:54):
And it's just so stupid and so bizarre. I just I can't not love it.
That's great. That's distinguished guest here.
Walrus, yes, crew. Oh, and Walrus never cry.
How do I follow that? Yeah.

(27:18):
My personal history of the film, this rewatching it in prep for this podcast was the third time I'd seen it.
I feel like this is one of those movies that is almost like a movie that you show people and like Sean was kind of talking about that.
Like, like you see it and it's like so like darkly funny and unsettling that like you want to show it to people.

(27:40):
And I have like just such a weird experience the second time I had seen it showing it to my mom when she was like recovering from surgery.
And I just wanted to see what you would you know how she would take it.
She's not, you know, easily offended or, you know, she likes horror and stuff like that.
But I think she was just surprised at just kind of how like creepy it is and how it just kind of walks that line between comedy and horror like so interestingly.

(28:14):
And but yeah, I think that it's somewhat like Kevin Smith's attempt at a cult classic.
And like that's how like feeling like I want to show to people kind of like underscores that a little bit for me or at least a cult movie classic to be determined.
But yeah, my history with it is just kind of loving it. Love watching it with people love showing it to people love talking about it with people.

(28:38):
So that's it. Awesome.
What do you think, Matt? I don't have too much to add in terms of my personal history because this I only saw it for the first time last night.
But I've wanted to for the last 10 years, 11 years ever since this movie came out in 2014.
It just like the concept is so crazy and the reviews that I read of it back then, you know, just so divisive like you like my cat is being annoying.

(29:06):
I apologize. You know, it seemed like you either love it or hate it.
And I tend to really enjoy movies like that. So I've always been fascinated to see it finally did yesterday in honor of this episode.
Thank you, Sean, not only for being part of the walrus. Yes, teams.
And, you know, we partially have you to blame for this movie's existence.
But but also for bringing it to the podcast because, yeah, motivated me to finally see it.

(29:29):
And I won't get into my thoughts about it yet. I'm very, very happy I saw this movie, though.
Yeah, I'm with Matt. I hadn't seen it till last night.
And I swear, I think we were all three watching it at the same time.
And I almost texted you, Matt, to confirm that because there are certain moments where I was like, oh, my God.

(29:52):
Yeah, this is the type of movie where I just immediately had to talk to people about it.
I had to do my own research. I listened to other podcasts, which I'll cite in my own research here.
I'm going to check out the original Walrus and the Carpenter episode of the Smodcast podcast.
I was I didn't know. So for the past 10 years, it's a movie that I've heard about,

(30:19):
which I think is a testament to its cult status.
But I don't watch a whole lot of contemporary horror movies, especially at that time.
I wasn't. So this was a bit of an education for me in that way.
I'm glad I finally got to see it. And I can't wait to talk about it.

(30:45):
It's funny that at least three of us had like a mind meld going on last night when we were watching this in separate places,
but still sharing that kind of like simpatico, you know.
Yeah, totally. We almost should have been in like a text group so I could be like, you know, is his mustache kind of, you know, like tusks?
Like, what is this? That's the thing, too. I didn't know if like I do nothing about this movie other than there's a walrus and a man.

(31:13):
And I and I thought listeners could be a lot of spoilers in this in our review, but can't be helped.
I thought Justin Long would be. Literally like turned into a walrus.
Oh, you mean like body morphing? Yeah, yeah.
So I'm like, I'm watching his mustache throughout the movie, wondering, like, oh, is it going to start growing longer?

(31:38):
They're going to be like really subtle shifts. Like these teeth will start growing.
It quickly didn't turn into that. And I was like, oh, this is a very different movie. OK.
That would have been cool, though, like almost like a werewolf transformation. Yeah.
Yeah, I was thinking of you a lot like just because the visual of the walrus piece together really reminded me of Frankenstein's monster.

(32:03):
Yeah. And I was just wondering if you thought like, you know, how test kind of builds on that legacy like in horror, you know, like I thought it adds a little something for me.
It just reminded me of it. I thought I'd be right away. Yeah.
I thought about a lot of different movies watching this Frankenstein, one of them. I was like, it's like Frankenstein meets Silence of the Lambs in a weird way.
Which I love. Like, how many movies can you say those two titles in the same sentence?

(32:29):
Yeah, absolutely. All right. All right. Let's get into the cast and crew.
Talk about these folks briefly. We'll get into the backstory, which with the walrus yes movement and all that, there's going to be, I think, a lot of things to talk about there.
After our sponsor break and mean his mailbox.

(32:54):
Then the four of us can really get into our own personal reviews and breakdowns.
The good, the bad and the campy. Okay. Sounds good.
All right. Well, we have.
Kevin Smith writing this movie, directing it and editing it.
So Kevin Smith, who wants to talk about Kevin Smith? I, I, I won't because I will admit I, this is my first Kevin Smith movie.

(33:25):
So it's okay if it's your only one. Is this a good place to start? Should I continue?
I actually don't think this is a good place to start personally. No, unlike most of his movies.
Which maybe is a good thing. I mean, maybe that's a great place to start. Who knows? But it is very unlike most of his other movies. I think this is very unlike any other movie. So, you know, I agree.

(33:49):
The big staple that he has across all of his films is that he focuses on conversation.
And you can obviously see that with this particular movie because everyone has their own monologue. Everyone is trying to, you know, get whatever it's not really the word I'm trying to think of is something along the lines of exposition.
It's not really exposition. He's just trying to give character backstory to everything.

(34:13):
And then it doesn't just automatically jump to the next scene. It's like it's, it's not really a plot device. He's just, he just wants to people have people talk.
And that's just essentially what he's been doing ever since Clerks. And it's just something that he can't seem to get away from.
That's all right. If that's his style, it certainly works for him.

(34:35):
I always kind of get the sense that he's one of those writer directors that like takes a lot from his actual life. It's actual conversations.
Like for better or worse, because sometimes you sort of feel like, okay, like I'm not a part of that friend group. Maybe this isn't that funny. Like Sean and I were talking about the movie after this in the True North trilogy, Yoga Hosers, that's set in that universe.

(34:57):
And it's just like so painful in my opinion, very like painful. And I feel like I'm seeing kind of maybe like a lot of it's like jokes or like stuff that maybe wasn't as relatable.
So I, I just wonder like what makes some click and some don't, you know, some not click, you know, like, and maybe it's a stage in your life. Maybe it's the way he works. I don't really know.

(35:18):
But I definitely like Kevin Smith films more when I was growing up and I did like the banter and I still do like the banter.
But I just wonder what, what, what factors in and out that that changes that the outcome for me like some are good, some are bad for me.
I would like to apologize on his behalf for Yoga Hosers.

(35:41):
It was basically just a giant fever dream that he wrote for different because he has multiple podcasts.
And on that particular one, it was mainly just a bunch of different things he thought of during those podcasts.
And like, you know what? This should be one of those elements from that, from that show that I'm on. Let's just go ahead and put that in here.
And like, for instance, there's a guy that's actually in Tusk. His name is Ralph Garman.

(36:07):
He is the chief commissioner in the police department and for Tusk, at least in Yoga Hosers, he plays.
He plays a hidden Nazi general who wants to take over the world with Nazi sausages called bratsies.

(36:29):
And the only reason he even brought Ralph Garman on is because he's a man of different impersonations.
And he wanted to flex his voice for that because in red state he actually brought him on and he doesn't have any voice.
His throat actually gets slashed to the point where he can't talk. So he wanted to make sure that he actually get his due.
Interesting. One thing I liked about seeing that movie, though, is like it stars his daughter, Harley Quinn Smith and Lily Rose Depp.

(36:59):
So it's kind of this like Neppo baby star. And it takes like the two convenience store characters and like expands their world.
And like, it's kind of funny to see like Lily Rose Depp, who I never would have like picked out.
But I've seen Nosferatu a couple of times and it's kind of fun to see the journey there.
Even if I'm not a fan of the film, it's still cool to see her like taken off.

(37:24):
Elvis is in that. Yeah, Austin Butler.
Yeah, the guy who played Elvis in the Baz Luhrmann film is also in it. Yeah. Interesting.
Yeah. Justin Long is in it as well, but he plays a totally different character.
Yeah, he plays like a yoga. Anyway, we don't.

(37:46):
I guess I'm reeling from it a little bit because I watched it today and I just like can't believe how painful it was for me.
I've heard it's pretty rough. Yeah, it's not good. Yeah.
I've heard that about Red State, too, which sounds really interesting, but I've read pretty negative things about it.
But I'm intrigued to see it. That's interesting because I've heard generally positive things about Red State.

(38:07):
You guys have to watch Red State. Maybe that's the next one to kind of like, you know, get if you like Tusk, maybe check it out and you could go further back and dig further back if you want.
Yeah, we'll talk about Red State a little bit more here because it kind of is like the lead in to Tusk for Kevin Smith.

(38:28):
A couple other just credits behind the camera. I wanted to just shout out cinematography by James Laxton, music by Christopher Drake, and really interesting special effects by Robert Kurtzman.
I always like looking at the filmography of these people, especially the special effects designers.

(38:49):
And Kurtzman has a long list of horror films, monster films.
Matt, I see you head nodding. Yeah, sorry. I'm just looking at that list right now.
There are a lot of bangers on here for sure. I mean Predator, Evil Dead 2, a lot of Halloween movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Bride of Reanimator, Dark Man, which is great.

(39:11):
I love that movie. People Under the Stairs is awesome. Even Dances with Wolves. So yeah, an extensive filmography for sure.
And that's just like the 80s and early 90s. I haven't even gotten further than that yet. Yeah, Tusk.
The cast though is I think is really, I think it's a really interesting cast. I'd love to hear your all thoughts on this, but I'll just go through the names real quick and then we could talk about who's really lighting up our screens.

(39:47):
So Michael Parks plays Howard Howe, the serial killer who abducts people. Men? I don't think it's ever stated if it's if women are included.
Well, he doesn't have any sexual nature applied to them. So he just, I think he mainly just goes for whatever. They don't really state. Yeah.
Well, either way, if you are abducted by Howard Howe, he's going to surgically turn you into a walrus monstrosity.

(40:17):
So the rest of the cast in Tusk includes Justin Long as Wallace, a very pointed name, obviously, for that protagonist.
He's a successful but obnoxious American podcaster who goes to Manitoba looking for the next weird story for his podcast. His podcast host is played by Haley Joel Osment.

(40:40):
He and Wallace's girlfriend, Allie, are having an affair. There's kind of like a difficult love triangle among them. Allie is played by Genesis Rodriguez.
She has her doubts about her relationship with Wallace, understandably because he is a pretty terrible person in a lot of ways, at least at the start of the movie.
She and Teddy go looking for Wallace together when they learn that he is in trouble.

(41:05):
Another character introduced later in the movie is a Quebecois detective named Guy LaPont.
What's that? Sorry. No, we're just laughing at this character. Ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So absurd.
And the actor who plays him is not credited in the film at all in the opening or end credits or anything.

(41:29):
But it is Johnny Depp, which you may be able to tell. And when I watched Tusk, I was like, that voice is so familiar.
Eventually it occurred to me. So it's kind of a fun little like I guess I just ruin this for anybody who's listening to the podcast. But who is that guy behind all the makeup?
It is Johnny Depp. And then finally, like we already talked about, we have Kevin Smith's daughter, Harley Quinn Smith and Johnny Depp's daughter, Lily Rose Depp, as the two Canadian convenience store clerks who reappear in yoga hosers.

(41:58):
Yeah, I want to say I was watching the Johnny Depp character and it was towards the end of his screen time.
I was I was I was recognizing Johnny Depp in his eyes and there was something about his eyes.
And I thought, is that Johnny Depp? And then I convinced myself that is not Johnny Depp.

(42:25):
And then I went, holy crap, I was wrong. It was Johnny Depp. But I was right the whole time.
Give you a solid point for that.
I had a similar experience where I was like, that can't be him, can it? What is Johnny Depp doing in this movie?
And I had a similar response to Haley Joel Osment being in this movie. I feel like the casting is a little bit hit or miss, but I'll maybe talk about that more later.

(42:50):
OK. Yes, I think Michael Parks steals the show as Howard Howe.
I have a lot of good things to say about his performance, but it's it's an arresting performance.
I think he handles the language and his character so diabolically subtle and menacing, but also absolutely unhinged lunatic.

(43:19):
I so agree. I think he's just like just unforgettable in this movie.
And it's not just like how he does it, but it's sort of these eloquent monologues.
They almost mirror podcasting the format itself. You're kind of like speaking to this audience that can't respond.
And he just like absolutely nails it and gives you a lot to think about.

(43:43):
And I don't know if the movie would work without him.
I completely agree. Totally.
Speaking of the podcast, I'd love to hear Sean if I mean, I wrote notes, but I mean, you seem sounds like you were there in the beginning, the Genesis.
So I don't know if you wanted to share about what it was like.

(44:06):
Like you did you listen to the podcast? I did.
As being a Kevin Smith super fan, I've listened to every single podcast he's ever done, except for the one that he did with his wife and one of the ones that he did with his daughter.
With this particular movie, hearing it and then having him talk about it relentlessly over and over.
And then you actually get to see the behind the scenes.

(44:27):
It was just you were literally there for everything.
And he since he's so vocal about everything, it was like being part of the set.
It was really awesome.
That's cool. And like Kevin Smith is so good about like sharing the experience with his fans.
Right. I mean, I wouldn't count myself among like his top tier of fans, but I do admire that about him.

(44:48):
That like filmmaking seems to be a very like communal experience for him, which is very.
It's funny. He actually talks about like certain shots for this movie.
And there's a specific one that he calls the Genesis shot.
Care to guess which one that one is?
Is it the one that you briefly showed on your screen earlier?

(45:10):
No, no, no, no. The Genesis shot is the one where it's Genesis Rodriguez just staring into the camera.
And she's monologuing about how she hates Justin Long's character and how she can't stand the way that he's turned into what he's become.
And it's just like this long four minute monologue that she's doing.
And it's just it's wonderful.

(45:32):
That is a very powerful moment in the movie, for sure.
And then you see Haley Joel Osmond's hand come, you know, come on.
I was like, oh, no.
But also like, good for you.
He's a caring person.
He's so caring.

(45:58):
Well, yeah, that's that's really, really neat.
So I watched one. I got the DVD from from the library.
And I wanted that because I knew there'd be bonus features.
And one of them was a featurette with Kevin Smith is like 20 years until Tusk.
And it's just Kevin Smith talking. And like we all know now, I didn't know.

(46:22):
Yeah, he loves to talk and he's very candid.
But I found him extremely well spoken and insightful and like he's learned a lot of lessons over his filmmaking career.
He really wants he's really passionate about indie filmmaking because it's he gets to tell personal stories.
And part of his career journey is getting lost kind of in the mainstream studio racket.

(46:50):
And he made a couple of movies. The two movies he made before Tusk were Zach and Mary make a porno in 2008 and cop out in 2010.
Yeah. He was really dissatisfied with those projects for various reasons.
So he kind of stepped away from filmmaking and decided to just be a podcaster, to just be as he said, quote, just Kevin Smith.

(47:14):
And he went on tours and just kind of being himself for his fans.
But it was the creation of this podcast called Smodcast with his co-host, Scott Moser.
And they had this this podcast called The Walrus and Carpenter, as they as it said in the movie, based on true events.

(47:38):
I thought, please don't let that be true.
So the whole idea was that it was based off of like what you see in the movie where Wallace goes to the bathroom of this random bar.
And then he sees an ad, you know, saying, I live alone.
I want somebody to come help me and I'll give you a bunch of stories to tell and free rent.
So essentially, that part was what was true.

(48:03):
So what Kevin Smith finds out later on is that it was just somebody trying to mess with other people at the bar.
And so they just put that up there.
And then he didn't realize that until far later.
But he's like, I have to make a movie about this.
This is the dumbest thing ever.
It's so fascinating.
I need to do it.
So he just went from one extreme to the other.
And he just he he hammered it home.

(48:25):
That's all I got. I could say about that.
And Sean, you could probably speak to this a little bit more maybe.
Like so on the smodcast episode, the walrus and the carpenter like Kevin Smith and Scott Moser were just like inventing a story behind that.
Right. And that sort of is what became the movie Tusk, like a similar story.
Right. Yeah, pretty much.

(48:46):
Because basically they did you get all the way to the end of the credits?
OK, so you heard that little beat where they actually do that little bit of the podcast that they aired.
So that's essentially what happened.
They just just kept ripping, ripping off each other.
And yeah, we got the movie out of it.
But but but Kevin Smith and Moser put it to a vote, right, with Twitter followers.

(49:11):
Yes. And as he describes it, everybody on Twitter said hashtag walrus.
Yes. Except one person who said, well, everybody says, yes, I got to be the dissenting opinion.
It's really walrus. Yes. But I just need to see where this is.
And at the end or part of the credits of Tusk are the handles.
I guess they're the Twitter handles of those who voted walrus.

(49:35):
Yes, I believe that's the case.
But I think that might also be people who chipped in for any kind of funding.
I don't really remember. Yeah.
Well, still, I think that's really cool.
I didn't know any of that. That's really interesting.
I know it was its origins were like in his podcast, but I love the idea of, you know,
maybe like acknowledging backers or people who supported it in some way,

(50:00):
either financially or just on social media. I think that's cool.
Oh, yeah. That's fun.
It's like a grassroots type of filmmaking. Yeah, totally.
I recently I don't know if you guys are familiar with the In Search of Darkness, like deep dive horror documentary.
They did one for the 80s. It's incredibly thorough, but they just did one for the 90s.

(50:24):
They released the first few years of it. And for Christmas, my partner got me.
Actually, he put my name in as a backer. So my name is in the credits.
That feels good. And I just saw that actually today.
So hearing that, I'm excited for those people that can see their name as part of a big project.
Yeah.

(50:47):
Yeah, I'm just thinking about that. That's so nice.
Well, Kevin Smith, just to get back to the production here, the screenplay is only 80 pages.
He wrote it. He was he had a lot of his movies financed by the Weinsteins with Miramax and kind of the movie was originally titled The Walrus and the Carpenter.

(51:12):
But Kevin Smith, he's he's on record saying like something to the effect of if I'm making a walrus movie, it has to be called Tusk.
So that's that's the change of name there.
The better. Was it influenced by the song test? Or is that like a film urban legend?
So he has gone on record saying that while he was writing the script, he had the song on pretty much throughout the entire writing process.

(51:41):
And that's why it actually made it into the movie.
He said that was the most expensive part of the movie was getting that song on there.
I can believe that. Yeah.
Yeah, this movie was made for three million dollars.
That's so low.
But oh, but this is another great point that Kevin Smith says like right off the bat in that featurette.

(52:05):
He says. He loves working with next to no money because it forces him to be creative.
And I love that spirit just as a as an artist myself.
Yeah, money is not always I mean, it helps.
It can help. But, you know, what how how can you be creative?

(52:26):
How can you think outside the box? If you're forced to.
And I think there's some value to that.
It also comes with his experience of those two mainstream movies because he put a little bit more money into those and the returns were not great.
Even though he wrote Zack and Mary, it just he was still trying to catch that mainstream vibe of Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, everybody who was hot at the time.

(52:52):
And it just it didn't really stretch anything beyond his idea of I need somebody behind the counter,
which was the beginning of Zack and Mary, where they all work at a coffee shop.
And then from here, it's basically just him redoing clerks over and over, which he has now officially done, you know, up to clerks three, which is a tragic movie.

(53:16):
I love it. That's so funny. Yeah, I definitely have to see clerks.
Yeah, I remember seeing dogma when I was a kid on Comedy Central.
But I didn't realize it was Kevin Smith.
Yeah, actually kind of cool because you can't get it. It's hard to find a hard copy of dogma.
Like, it's almost impossible. And you go on eBay and stuff. You can find it.

(53:40):
But I can't remember the exact reason. But I have a like a torrent of it.
Oh, yeah. Why? Strictly because of Weinstein. He originally was holding on to the rights of dogma even while he's incarcerated.
And Kevin was like, look, I want this movie back. This is all the money I can give you in order to buy it back for me.

(54:02):
And for the longest time, Weinstein kept saying no, like he kept telling his his legal team. No, I bet I can make more money off of this.
He finally got the rights back as of last year. So he's officially going to work on a quote unquote remaster.
And he's going to tour it across the states again, kind of like how he does with all of his current movies.
And then after he's finished the tour, he's going to rerelease at retail.

(54:26):
Nice. Cool. Good news. Yeah. I really like dogma a lot.
That's that's my favorite Kevin Smith movie. And I just think it's interesting.
I know we were talking about him before. But if I can go back to the Kevin Smith conversation briefly,
I just think it's really fascinating that like for like the first decade of his career or like most of the 90s anyway,
he was like making like fairly like we were talking about, like low key kind of like hangout movies, clerks, mall rats, chasing Amy.

(54:51):
I think it's kind of like that, too. And I think at some point right around dogma, maybe like it started to be a little bit like higher concept.
Like, what if like all these like angels and like demons like met on Earth and then like, you know,
I think maybe like we even see that in Red State and Tusk a little bit when we're like the ideas get like more extra extravagant kind of.

(55:13):
And they're not just sort of like chill hangout movies. There's like like grand concepts behind them or whatever.
And I don't know if it always works. I haven't seen a lot of them like Red State and Yoga Hosers, but it's just an interesting progression, I think.
And in Tusk, it's like it definitely works in what it's trying to do. And I find that fascinating.

(55:34):
Nice. He he. So speaking of Red State, Smith credits his ability to make horror a horror film based on the success he had in making Red State,
which is a horror thriller about like an ultra conservative family. I haven't seen it personally.
But Michael Parks is in that movie. And Kevin Smith loved working with Michael Parks so much.

(56:00):
He brought him onto Tusk. And then I think there's a really great quote from Kevin Smith on that.
He says, I just wanted to showcase Michael Parks and a fucked up story where he could recite some Lewis Carroll and rhyme of the ancient mariner.
Some poor motherfucker sewn into a realistic walrus costume. Cool. That's a great quote. Yeah, I love that.

(56:23):
I mean, like you strip everything away. I just really love an artist saying I want to do this.
I want to make this movie because no one else will. And it's like like that's a real attitude that I that I gravitate towards as an artist.
So. Yeah, I'm like, go for it. Go go make all the messed up movies you want, Kevin Smith, even if they're terrible.

(56:48):
As long as they're not trauma. Well, I think there's that's interesting. You bring that up.
I think I think there's like there's a lot of like exploitation, trash DNA in.
Tusk. But I don't think it's quite as trashy as a trauma film.

(57:10):
So just to add on to that real quick, I finally watched my first trauma movie two weeks ago, which was Toxic Avenger.
It's rough. Yeah, that's all I got.
Yeah, I hope this doesn't sound too self promotional, but we talked about that in the podcast a while back and it like I feel like it is trying to say something about the 80s, but it just does so.

(57:36):
And like the most sleazy and disturbing and like grades like proudly juvenile and like it's hard to really love that movie all that much when it's like, you know, the the means don't justify the ends or maybe the maybe vice versa or whatever.
But anyway, it's really hard to like Toxic Avenger, I think. Yeah, like that summer gaming things. But other than that, yeah, just to play devil's advocate.

(58:00):
I mean, that is what it is. It is a sleazy in some ways, check your brain at the door type of movie.
So I don't know. Maybe you meet it on its own terms. Maybe you don't. Maybe it's not your cup of tea.
I watched it with a group of friends at the time, so that was about as best as I could do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(58:21):
Well, principal photography for Tusk was real quick, November 4th to November 22nd, 2013 and critical reviews.
I find them to be mixed to negative, but I find public reviews a little more forgiving.
It is a cult classic or at least a cult movie.
I had a question. I was really surprised that you said that it was kind of like a lower budget because I don't know.

(58:51):
I think horror has kind of evolved to where like now we have technology and technology can be really expensive and that is can like be at the forefront of how people make things.
So I just wonder how he did that. You know, like what kind of collaborations took place to like, you know, was it practical?
Was it like how much was CG? Like, I don't know. And my eye is not sharp enough to distinguish.

(59:15):
But so I just wonder like how he was able to do it so cheaply.
Kirk's been all the way. He was a very good effects guy in order to help get that budget really low.
And he pays the actors, I think, like sag minimum.
So they're like actors aren't really getting much on it. So everything else is just going towards the expense of actually how to, you know, produce the movie.

(59:42):
Yeah. And like while the house was grand, it's a pretty small set if you think about it.
You know, there's only a few locations. I guess that makes sense. Small cast.
Well, I was just thinking like even some of the sort of like, you know, there's kind of like a violent climax, but that mostly takes place off screen.
Like, I don't want to give anything away. Something might be impaled by a whale wrist tusk.

(01:00:05):
But like, you know, that mostly happens off screen.
So I feel like that helps kind of like keep the budget down a little bit as well.
Yeah, no, it's it's really clever is not the right word, but it's really just I read the word workman like applied to Kevin Smith.
Like he knows how to keep things well managed. He knows how to manage a budget and time and to really get the maximum output.

(01:00:35):
And I think I think that's just as important as the creative stuff, too.
Like, I think in terms of his longevity and success, he knows the business side of it and how to how to be an effective filmmaker in that way.
If you ever get the chance, I strongly recommend checking out his autobiographies that he's done.

(01:00:57):
I think he's got two out and they're incredibly inspirational.
They I've teared up reading one of them.
But the whole thing about it is it basically I think one of them is called.
I don't remember the game, so excuse me on that.
But anyways, one of them is basically detailing his life about how he has moved on to being a podcaster and how he's trying to make things completely different on that side of the business,

(01:01:27):
because he's managed to turn that into an empire, so to speak.
But when you actually see how he tried to make Zack and Miri and then go from that to podcasting, you see his guess you can call it his downfall and then his I wouldn't say meteoric rise.
But I would say rise enough to D level status of being a celebrity.

(01:01:49):
And he just everything about it is just such a good read.
Yeah, I'll have to check that out.
This is a good time for a sponsor break.
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(01:02:15):
Link in the show notes.
And we have Menya's mailbox.
Matt, do you want to read this comment here?
Yeah, sure.
Let me first say that Menya's mailbox is brought to you by Patreon.
If you become a patron, then your comments are tops.
So please become a patron.

(01:02:36):
Thank you.
On YouTube, Historical Education commented.
Oh, first, can I ask you, Vincent, what video they commented on?
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
OK, that makes sense.
So they wrote, can you do it came from beneath the sea, which is a great idea.
I think we should do it.
Another Ray Harryhausen movie.

(01:02:57):
It's about a giant octopus.
Yeah, let's do it.
Historical Education, thank you for your comment.
Yeah, I actually wanted to bring it to the podcast years ago, but I swapped it out for Valley of Gwangi, which is Matt's favorite movie.
I might have preferred it came from beneath the sea, but that's all right.
We take everything here on Camp Kaiju, the good, the bad and the downright can be.

(01:03:21):
There you go.
Welcome to Poverty Row Studios on the other side of Hollywood, where the stars were dimmer and the red carpet stripped with blood.

(01:03:43):
Together we will watch the best of the worst movies known for their limited budgets, outlandish concepts and questionable performances.
But with enough haunted houses, zombies, ape men and devil bats to keep you up at night.
This is the Poverty Row Picture Show.
I dare you to sleep through these nightmares.

(01:04:09):
In season four of Camp Kaiju, I was unceremoniously resurrected from my grave by Matt, even Vincent, and I was forced into reviewing monster movements of the silent era in exchange for my eventual freedom.
I lived, worked and ate fish heads in this recording booth that soon became its own kind of eternal sarcophagus of hell.

(01:04:31):
As I marked the days until my freedom, a little mouse burrowed its way into my prison.
Sporting a friendly smile and an off-color sense of humor, this rodent, whose name was Pierre, soon became not only my bosom buddy but my lifeline to the outside world.
All this changed one fateful evening when Pierre was overcome with murderous envy for my natural broadcasting abilities.

(01:04:57):
He attacked me with a meat cleaver and things have never been quite the same.
Now, well, I suppose I'd better get back to the Poverty Row Picture, but I have not seen Pierre around and flashbacks to that terrible night flashed before my eyes.
Listeners, beware of little mousey feet scurrying in the night.

(01:05:21):
Now, until the rat bastard shows his face, let us enjoy the antics of a certain rat with wings known as the Devil Bat starring Bela Lugosi from Poverty Row Studio Producers Releasing Corporation, better known as PRC.
This studio was the poorest of the bunch, but that did not prevent Bela Lugosi from a string of leading roles in their horror endeavors.

(01:05:48):
The Devil Bat may just be the best of the bunch.
Lugosi stars as an amiable scientist with a mad secret.
He has been breeding enormous bats for the purpose of exacting revenge on those business associates who have cheated him out of a fortune.
These bats have been conditioned to seek out the pungent odor of a certain aftershave that Lugosi tricks his victims into applying onto their necks.

(01:06:17):
Dracula, move over! There's a new blood-sucking monster in town and it is a giant rubber prop on strings screaming bloody murder.
Truly, listeners, the Devil Bat is essential viewing for fans of classic horror movies.
And while critically dismissed in its day, the Devil Bat nevertheless spawned rip-offs and its own sequel.

(01:06:43):
The popular appeal is no doubt thanks to Lugosi, who delivers a signature deadpan performance in an otherwise campy picture where you'll find yourself laughing at the dramatic action and groaning through the attempts at comedic relief.
It's really, really a joy of motion picture making and a breath of fresh air as we delve into the depths of classic schlock.

(01:07:06):
Next time on the Poverty Row Picture Show, we will discuss another Lugosi film from PRC called The Invisible Ghost, in which Lugosi plays another friendly town leader beset with madness.
This time over the disappearance of his wife. But is she really gone? Stay tuned to find out!

(01:07:51):
They tormented him until he had a horrifying accident and fell into a vat of nuclear waste.
Transforming little Melvin into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength.
Melvin became the Toxic Avenger.

(01:08:13):
The first superhero born out of nuclear waste. Look out!
Okay, so, Demi, what did you like about this movie?
I've already kind of talked about it, but for me it was Michael Parks. Like, he is what I like. There's a lot of things I like about this movie, but to me, like, that is the most resonant piece of the movie for me.

(01:08:40):
And side note, I heard something kind of strange that I first I thought I wasn't reading it correctly, but he actually was buried at sea, which I thought was really interesting. I didn't know you could request that, but I thought like his character in Tusk would probably request that.
No disrespect to him, but I just thought that was really interesting.

(01:09:01):
That's good trivia. I didn't know that. Yeah.
I was like, wow, like, can I say that true? How do you arrange that? But yeah, for me, his character was awesome, and I loved the elephant monologues.
And like I said, I just felt that they really mirrored the podcasting format itself, you know, and it made me think that Kevin Smith is not that I ever didn't think he was smart, but I admired that level.

(01:09:27):
That Wallace and Howe are both men who love to talk and tell elaborate stories while their audience is unable to respond. And I just thought that that was like, kind of darkly funny in a way that the rest of the movie is.
And that's probably my favorite way. And if I was trying to like sell it to somebody, I would give them a version of that. Like, that it's it's meta in a way, and it's interesting, and it's memorable.

(01:09:53):
And it has some great performances in it. And this gives you something to think about beyond just the images that it leaves in your mind.
So I liked it. I thought it was fun. It's it sparks thoughts in me all around a good time.
Are any of them about the fighters?

(01:10:19):
I mean, I did have some wishes, you know, I thought like, wow, I wish, you know, you could do other podcasters like they're really obnoxious ones like, you know, the Joe Rogan types or something.
But yeah, just that statement of Internet culture, podcasting, media exploitation, you know, it still feels relevant over a decade later.

(01:10:40):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, maybe I can go next real quick. Sean, I feel like you have a lot of great things to say about this movie. So I'll just like briefly give my my good the things I liked about this movie.
But no, Naomi, I totally agree with you. I think like this movie, like I kind of assumed that maybe it would be like kind of jokey and just like a gimmick like the little bit that I knew about it before watching it.

(01:11:02):
But it really is sophisticated in some ways. That seems like a strange thing to say about this movie. But like, you know, it has things to say about the world of podcasting and like digital media in general.
And maybe it's just like media even broader than that, just like, you know, selling yourself just for a couple likes and for like a little more engagement.
Like the Justin Long character is pretty disgusting in this movie, even before he literally gets disgusting. He's just morally reprehensible.

(01:11:32):
And, you know, like it's little things like the fact that he wants to interview the Kill Bill kid who accidentally cut off his own leg.
And then, of course, Justin Long's own leg gets cut off. It like seems like karmic retribution, you know.
So I like everything it has to say about his character. I read a review of Tusk that kind of covers some of the things that we've been talking about where Kevin Smith is so verbose and loves talking so much.

(01:11:58):
And the Justin Long character in this movie loses his voice, like loses the ability to talk. And like that's among the many sort of tragedies that happen to him.
And the review, it's by Bilj Ebirah. I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right, but he's great. He writes for Vulture and he's written for some other publications.
And he's kind of saying that it's like Kevin Smith's like, what if I lost my ability to express myself and make what I want to make?

(01:12:22):
And sort of like we've been talking about, that's a very relevant theme, like throughout his career, especially around this time of like those last couple mainstream movies to self funding these movies.
So I think that's really fascinating. I think there's like real skill in like building up a sense of dread, especially in that scene when Justin Long is drinking the drugged tea, like before we know exactly what's going to happen, but we know that something is up.

(01:12:48):
Just like some of the cutaways and some of the close ups of like Howard's like wheelchair and stuff like that, building a sense of suspense. Really well done.
So again, I kind of just thought this was going to be like a one joke movie, but it actually does have something to say. And I was impressed by that.
Yeah, totally. I think you're kind of piggybacking on what you say about creativity.

(01:13:13):
It asks like what part of the artist or the creator or the human, like where does the animal end of the human begin? And I think that if you're a creative person, like you think about that, what is special?
Can that be changed? We see at the end, sorry for the spoiler, but it leaves us somewhat ambiguous. I've heard different theories of is he all the way animal or is there still that glimmer of Wallace in him and what makes a person human?

(01:13:48):
Yeah. Sean, what do you think?
So I do have to ask this question because it's posed in the movie. I might as well ask you all. Is man indeed a walrus at heart?
I really want to know if you guys think that because with the way how he does convert at the end, it's just like what Naomi was saying. Does he actually have any trace of being Wallace again?

(01:14:21):
And if we weren't getting a sequel, I could tell you. I don't know. Yeah, honestly, this this movie hits on all levels for me, mainly due to the absurdity of it all, because you get the idea of, you know, how far would a podcaster go in order to try and create content?
If you look at stuff now, people will do the most insane things and they will end up trying to record it. And sometimes they get in trouble for it. Sometimes they don't. Other people find them reprehensible. In this case, Wallace is incredibly horrendous.

(01:14:56):
As we go on throughout the film, it gets more and more absurd. And for me, that just takes a jab at the old ticker. And it's like, yeah, I love this.
When it comes to anything involving Michael Parks, he is a very special person to be able to say so many different things. And then when you find his motivation for it all, I like I want to try and relate that to some of the stuff that has been going on to like real world things that have been happening recently, or at least within the last five years.

(01:15:35):
And to see this come out when he also used to work with Weinstein.
It's really all that I can say about it's just because I have nothing but love for this movie.
I will say each. Well, actually, I do want to ask Matt this.

(01:15:56):
So what were your.
I want to say, who do you think was miscast for this movie?
Um, yeah, I was I was saving that for my What did I dislike about the movie? But, okay.
But yeah, no, I can talk about that a little bit.
You know, I Justin Long and Michael Parks are great. They really do carry this movie, I think.

(01:16:19):
I for me, it's Johnny Depp and Haley Joel Osment that are like big mistakes in the casting, in my opinion, I, and I don't actually think it's Johnny Depp, I think it's the Gila point character overall.
Maybe I will save that a little bit for my upcoming discussion and like what did I dislike about the movie?
But I think that part does come off a little bit too jokey and gimmicky when it should at that moment of the movie probably be focusing on other things, you know.

(01:16:49):
But yeah, maybe I'll save that discussion for later.
But and Haley Joel Osment, like I guess I sort of understand like casting somebody who used to be like so prominent in the public eye and then maybe was out of that for a while.
And but people still know about him and he's still somewhat recognizable.
I do understand those parts of it.
But for me, the narrative and emotional trajectory of like the love triangle or like the affair with Genesis and Teddy or whatever his name is, did not buy it for a second.

(01:17:17):
And I think that's mostly because of Haley Joel Osment, like I don't think he really builds a believable character in this movie.
And maybe that's on me for just like knowing it's Haley Joel Osment and like fixating on that a little bit too much.
But it's impossible to imagine, in my opinion, that the Allie character would would find solace with him or refuge with him or whatever.

(01:17:40):
He's a much nicer guy than Wallace, no doubt about that.
But but still kind of like I don't know.
I think the character and I think Haley Joel Osment is responsible for part of this seems like he's just there to like push the story along and kind of like provide a foil for both the Allie and the Wallace characters.

(01:18:03):
And it just didn't work for me.
I'll just briefly state kind of a variation on the themes we're talking about as a writer, as just an enjoyer of dialogue and movies.
I really enjoyed this screenplay.
I love the long monologues as a choice, because afterwards I realized, oh, everyone's telling a story, right?

(01:18:26):
Howard Howe has his flashbacks.
Guy LaPointe has his own flashbacks.
I'm like, oh, everyone's telling a story in this movie.
Love that.
Yeah, I think I think the actors we all mentioned that we are on board with.
I did all that.

(01:18:47):
To your to your question, Sean, you know, for the movie's question, Howard Howe's question, are we all just Walruses at heart?
Walrus, I don't know, but are we all just savages at heart?
Are we all just animals like is there?
I think this movie really explores that that tug and pull between like our brains and our instincts.

(01:19:11):
I think that's the story of humanity, like always striving to be better than our inner walrus.
And it is so hard to do, and I think Howard Howe, in his own screwed up, prophetic way, he's like here to reveal the truth.

(01:19:36):
But I mean, obviously, it's not a prophet I want to encounter at any point.
But there's a there's a there's a part of Howard Howe that's almost sympathetic because you're like, you see where he's coming from.
He just takes it to the farthest extreme.

(01:20:00):
Maybe that's just the cynic in me talking.
But I think I think this movie does explore that darker side of humanity that is perhaps in us all.
Oh, totally. It's I don't think you would be as interesting of a villain.
And it's like we've got two villains in this.
We've got, you know, the Wallace character that kind of pulls on this, like, you know, you know, do we sympathize with him or is he getting what he deserves?

(01:20:30):
Like, how do we feel about pitying him as he's just like wailing?
You know, it kind of strike, at least for me, like I think of his wailing and it's just so, you know, full of agony.
But yeah, he I agree.
It sort of explores those darker things.
And he does such a good job of it.
I can't say enough good things.

(01:20:51):
Agreed. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, what about what about some things that don't work for us in this movie?
I'll go first, because I didn't quite I kind of struggled to come up with things I didn't like.
I had to think about it.
And I was like, OK, I feel like certain scenes might overstay their welcome.

(01:21:12):
Like the guy, the point character.
I generally really enjoyed this character, actually, and found Johnny Depp hilarious.
But there was one point where I went, well, we get it.
Maybe this monologue has gone on a little too long.
As Monty Python would say, get on with it.

(01:21:33):
But yeah, I mean, maybe the jokes try too hard.
Kevin Smith's trying too hard to like have funny Canadians.
But again, I'm like, it doesn't really detract.
But you could critique such elements.
I would agree. Yeah.
Maybe I'll just real quickly piggyback off of that.

(01:21:55):
So, yeah, like back to the Guy LaPuon character, like I think.
So what I like about this movie is that it actually does have some complex characters like Wallace and Howard and, you know, like some themes beneath the surface.
But I also find this movie pretty frustrating because then, like, you know, you have the Guy LaPuon character where there's no better way to say it.

(01:22:19):
So I need to be a little bit vulgar.
I think Kevin Smith is just fucking around a little bit.
He's like, you know, like, oh, I want to have this ridiculous French or like Quebecois detective pretty much for no reason.
And like kind of like muddy up the pacing towards the end of the movie.
And I do tend to like films that have like a lot of different styles and genres like balanced comedy and horror and drama.

(01:22:40):
And like I normally do like that thing a lot.
But I think in this case, that Guy character especially and some of the like Canadian accents and some of the jokes around that,
like I think having that, but then also having a story where Howard, you know, faced really terrible abuse as a child and was sexually assaulted and, you know, had this like really intense relationship with this walrus when he was marooned on this island or whatever.

(01:23:09):
At times I was like, I just don't know what tone Kevin Smith is really going for here.
And I think it kind of like undermines what the characters dramatically went through to then have like, oh, Johnny Depp's just going to do a funny accent and wear some silly makeup.
So that that stuff didn't totally work for me.
Yeah. And that's why I say it's frustrating because I think this movie could have been even better if Kevin Smith had like a little bit more carefully been like this is where the comedy comes in and this is where the horror comes in and this is where the drama comes in.

(01:23:41):
I do admire like the multitude of different tones and styles, but I don't know if it's really always very carefully done in this movie.
Yeah, I have to agree. I would say that Guy LaPointe, it didn't really work for me.
That's my main criticism of the film is I think it kind of pulls focus.
I think, you know, is it sort of like that film Long Legs that just came out where is my problem that is it because Johnny Depp is so famous and for me it was recognizable.

(01:24:12):
And, you know, how would I feel about it if it was an unknown or a lesser known. I still think that that tone was a little bit different.
I, I think it's, it's so weird that like I kind of like like hate it in a weird way.
And I think it kind of contributes to its infamy as like a cult movie. But for me, I just didn't really like it and I felt a little bit of whiplash, you know, when I when he was on screen.

(01:24:39):
So I'm going to mirror what everyone else is saying.
Guy LaPointe is the only thing that pretty much stands out for me in terms of kind of lowering the movie a little bit because he's got some decent one liners. But as a whole, his his stick is just way too long.
When he starts going into the flashback where he talks about how he met, you know, some I think was Howard Moussier, where he's talking to him and then they go with their banter between the hillbilly and, you know, the French Canadian and just it just

(01:25:12):
goes on way too long.
Again, Guy LaPointe, really, he's an interesting character specifically just due to the fact as like what Matt said, he's literally there just to be a comedic person with really off putting makeup, which Johnny Depp has actually gone on record saying, Hey, Kevin, if I wear my nose like this, does it look like a certain appendage?

(01:25:40):
So, yeah.
But as a whole, I love that the fact that it's as what Vincent said, everybody is telling their own stories throughout the entire movie.
And that's great.
Except when you have everyone telling their own story, at what point does it start feeling like little segments that you should include as like little one shot stories on YouTube or as like a short film and try to get it to coalesce into a giant film piece.

(01:26:11):
And that's where I think it loses it a little bit because he's having all these things trying to mix together. And for the most part, it works. But there are some parts where it's just like, can we can we get a move on? This is this just doesn't seem like it's sitting.
It's just sitting. It's not doing anything else.
So, yeah.

(01:26:32):
Yeah, well said, everybody.
What about some campy moments?
Like one.
And it's a comedy, right? So, you know, choose what you will.
But I this is a Gila Point moment when he's going on about poutine, the poutine weenies, the poutine weenies.

(01:26:53):
I didn't know about poutine until I spent a summer in upstate New York.
I love it now, but it's for those of you who don't know, it's like french fries lathered in gravy and it's really good. But, you know, it can mess you up.
As Gila Point was was was talking about. So I found that funny.

(01:27:15):
Shouldn't have had that second slider.
My favorite thing, it's probably one of the lines that's actually spoken, but just the way that it transitions from.
Psychotic to funny back to psychotic back to funny.
It's that dining table scene where he says, I'm immobilized.

(01:27:38):
I can't move. Tell me what did you what did you see this the spider?
Oh, the arachnid assailant. You could say that it's a it was tiny.
It's you busy. Then then they start screaming at each other and then he gets up, walks over and that's when you get that sudden realization.
Oh, my goodness. He's been lying this entire time. I mean, you should have already gotten it beforehand, but he's just been lying to him.

(01:28:02):
Smacks him sits back down. Then they start screaming and wailing walrus like and it's just it's that really thin line where it's like, OK, this is absurd.
This is dark, but it's kind of funny. It's just moments like that that really get me.
I agree. That's a really great scene. I think for me, the campiest moment is the I think Sean already mentioned it, but like the flashback where Guy is talking to Howard and Howard has like the kind of hillbilly accent, which I read was Michael Park's idea.

(01:28:34):
He was like, wouldn't it be funny if I just had this accent all of a sudden? That's kind of cool.
It's yeah, I mean, that probably is another tangent that I don't know if the movie necessarily needs, but it's very entertaining, just very bizarre.
And like seeing those two actors, regardless of how I feel about their characters for the Guy LaPointe character, I like that scene a lot.

(01:28:56):
This is very bizarre, really over the top for sure.
Yeah, for me, it's all the Guy stuff too. Like he's the campiest part of it for me. Yeah, just every all of his dialogue, like the way he delivers life.
You know, it's just Johnny Depp is just such a strange guy, you know, like put him in a wig. He'll do a weird accent, like, you know, business as usual.

(01:29:24):
Totally. OK, Matt, let us let us get to our final ratings.
All right, so I'll do the rundown of our ratings as usual here on Camp Kaiju.
Our highest rating is it's a timeless classic. It definitely stands the test of time.
Our second rating is there may be some antiquated moments, but overall it's great and stands the test of time.

(01:29:47):
Number three, it may be historically significant or just fun, but it does not stand the test of time and our lowest ranking.
It is not worth revisiting and definitely does not stand the test of time.
For me, it's between two different rankings here, two different ratings or whatever.
I'm going to go with a more positive route. There may be some like maybe not great moments, but overall it's really good.

(01:30:12):
I think it does stand the test of time. It's just one of a kind. It's better than I expected it to be.
And like I thought it was going to be entertaining, but like it actually has some substance to it, which is like honestly more than I expected.
So, yeah, maybe some moments that I didn't like all that much, but I do think it does and will stand the test of time.
I'll have to agree to me. There are some antiquated moments, but it does stand the test of time.

(01:30:38):
It's super memorable. It sticks with you. It's very unique.
We can find references to it like in other stories, other media, but I don't know any other films that are like this.
So I think that it will stand the test of time. And if it had come out in the 80s or the 90s, it might have got cult following even sooner.

(01:31:07):
I think it kind of came out like whores having a big moment right now. Body horror even with movies like The Substance.
And if it had come out at another time, I think it would have gotten some traction and what stood the test of time.
So I give that rating as well.
Nice.
Before I get my rating, I do want to say the newest VHS movie, VHS Beyond, there is a segment that is actually written and directed by Justin Long.

(01:31:38):
It is essentially his version of Tusk.
Cool.
So they've definitely tried to redo it. I don't think it captures the magic very well, which gets me to my rating.
We all know that I love this movie. I've gone on saying multiple lovely things about this.

(01:32:00):
But as one of the quotes says, you got your canadoes and you got your canadotes.
And while I love this movie, as we've all said, there are some things that don't mesh really well.
I want to give it the highest, but I can't. So it's going to have to be there. Maybe some antiquated moments, but overall, it's great.

(01:32:25):
Stands the test of time.
Gavel.
Wow. I.
I.
I'm so torn between those top two.
But I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to break up this streak. I'm going to give it the highest rating.
Can I take it back?
No.

(01:32:46):
You gavel.
I think, you know, like this is the movie where I struggled like all night.
I'm thinking, what am I going to rate this movie? Because here we are.
I mean, everyone talks about this movie, even if you haven't seen it. We've all kind of known about it.
And maybe my expectations were low.
But it exceeded my expectations. I think it's really thematically rich.

(01:33:10):
I think it's absurd, but like intentionally absurd.
And I just I just think intentions, the word I think he Smith really balances the horror and the comedy really well.
At least again, better than I expected. It just it exceeded my expectations.
I love the performances and the writing.

(01:33:32):
And I don't know if I'm going to watch it again, but I would recommend this movie as like if you can stomach it.
And there are times where I was like I had like this is a gross movie and I don't often see movies that gross me out.
So desensitized the horror community like we see these movies all the time.
But again, this this movie is just so wild.

(01:33:57):
Nice. I'm I'm happy that you gave it the highest rating.
That makes me agree. I didn't expect that.
Me too. I love it. I think that's a.
I agree with everything you say, but if I don't feel like totally the same way, like I think and just knowing like what kind of knowledge you have over stories, literature, narrative, like I think that Kevin Smith would probably like be flattered that somebody like you really loves this movie.

(01:34:25):
You know, I think that that's cool. I'm going to make sure he's aware of it, even if he doesn't read it.
There you go. We have a man on the inside. Yeah, just DMM or whatever.
Before we close off, I do have to ask what did everyone think of the initial walrus shot when they just zoom out and you see it in its entirety?

(01:34:46):
Did you laugh? Did you freak out? I gasped. I was like, oh, yeah, I laughed in shock.
Like it's a funny and highly disturbing moment. I will never unsee that image.
Yes, I totally agree. It like comes back and yeah, you almost laugh as like a tension breaker or something.
It's just very and you see his eyes like this coming out of the costume. Yeah, right there.

(01:35:12):
It's just it's so memorable, so weird, so great. Yeah.
All right. Well, thank you, Naomi. Thank you, Sean. So so much. Thank you. I really appreciate that. So again, you can check us out on all your favorite podcasts, listening services.
It's either at Toku for two or and excuse me for actually entering it this way. Big Macca, but not huge.

(01:35:36):
So that's that's how I enter every episode. You can also check it out on YouTube.
It was really nice meeting you, too, Sean. I wanted to meet you when I heard that you were the one that picked this film.
So I just had to meet that person. Thanks for teaching us a lot about it. And I think that's great.
And for all Twin Cities listeners who enjoy movie trivia, I hope that you come down to film friends.

(01:36:02):
It's entirely self-produced movie trivia. The first Monday of every month.
It's in the Ox Tap Room at Indeed Brewery in Northeast Minneapolis free to play.
We have a Facebook page where I post a lot of trivia and hints and fun stuff going around in the Twin Cities that's film related.
You can also follow me on Instagram, see what I watch. I watch just an absolute insane amount of movies.

(01:36:27):
I think I've just under 100 movies watched in 25.
It's absolutely crazy. So I'm always watching something. My kids very a lot.
So thank you guys so much for having me. I'm excited to come back later in the season for Dracula's daughter.
I haven't seen that, but looking forward to it. And as always, it's so fun to talk to you guys.

(01:36:52):
You're all insightful. Thank you so much for teaching me stuff.
Thank you, Naomi and Sean. This is it's been a pleasure as always.
Really good conversation. And like like Naomi said, thank you, Sean, for bringing this to the podcast.
What a movie. And everybody, all you listeners will catch you next time on Camp Kaiju for Dracula's daughter.

(01:37:15):
So Naomi is going to join us back for that. And until then, please rate and review wherever you listen to Camp Kaiju.
Share this podcast. Subscribe to the website. Send us listener comments at CampKaiju.gmail.com, Instagram, YouTube.
Hit all those links in our show notes. If you'd like to be a featured voice on the show, leave a voicemail at 612-470-2612.

(01:37:39):
Tell us about Tusk or any other favorite monster movies of yours.
You can check out our website CampKaijuPodcast.com for more.
Camp Kaiju is recorded in Minneapolis, St. Paul with Meanie's Mailbox music by Ben Cook Phelps.
Thank you, friends. Until next time, stay campy.
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers.

(01:38:09):
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services.
Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.
Links in the show notes.

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