Kevin Smith's 101-Minute Horror Tusk Is Free on Pluto TV
A wave of French shock cinema in the 2000s, known for extreme violence, spread across Europe and into Hollywood. That era produced Hostel, A Serbian Film and The Human Centipede — underground hits that shocked audiences and provoked mainstream ire. One film from that sensibility is currently streaming for free in the United States.
Released in 2014 and distributed by A24, Tusk marked a creative departure for Kevin Smith. The 101-minute horror follows a podcaster who is kidnapped and experimented upon by a deranged man in Canada. Smith had risen in the early 1990s with Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Dogma, and in 2011 he made the action-thriller Red State.
Justin Long plays the narcissistic podcaster, with Michael Parks as his captor and an uncredited, unrecognizable Johnny Depp appearing as a detective. The cast also includes Genesis Rodriguez, Haley Joel Osment and cameos by Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp.
United States