Movies
Kevin Smith’s ‘Tusk’ Leads the Way For ‘Moose Jaws’ #SDCC
For whatever reason most of the mainstream press skipped out on the late-night San Diego Comic-Con event in which Kevin Smith revealed this absolutely bonkers trailer for Tusk, his horror film about a man who is turned into half walrus.
Thankfully, /Film was on hand and brings back more news, good news only if Tusk ends up being as crazy as it looks.
Tusk will be the first film in a newly planned series that Smith calls “The True North Trilogy.” Likely a reference to a similar Canadian setting, says the site, Tusk would be followed by Yoga Hosers (which Smith wants to make next, and be PG-13) and a new movie called Moose Jaws which he described as, yes, “Jaws, with a moose.” All three films would return the same actors as Tusk – Justin Long, Michael Parks and Joel Haley Osment.
Smith’s next film, Yoga Hosers, is a bit more mysterious at the moment. He talked like it was going to shoot next and maybe be be ready for release next year. And though the film was spawned by an odd story of theft among yoga enthusiasts, that seems to not be the focus at all. Smith said he was hoping to make Yoga Hosers his second PG-13 movie (the first being Jersey Girl) because it stars two 15-year-old girls as the main characters. In the film, they’ll battle people with superpowers. Or maybe have superpowers. It wasn’t exactly clear. But Smith said he would be “run out of the country” once we heard what the powers in the movie were.
Then there’s Moose Jaws. The only thing Smith said beyond the premise is that it featured a scene of the killer moose chowing down on a little girl. So it sounds like some kind of exploitation horror.
I really, really didn’t like Red State, mostly because it lacked impact and showed Smith didn’t really understand horror or suspense. But, there’s always hope that he’s learned from experience and criticism, and delivers with Tusk, which is my hope. I’d love to be excited for bizarre horror cinema that’s been vacant for quite some time in Hollywood…
Photo Source: Yahoo!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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