So despite a lot of hype, Kevin Smith's "Tusk" opened earlier this month and pretty much died. It earned a paltry $1.4 million theatrically but that said, the VOD numbers might be more encouraging. Either way, the filmmaker knows how to hustle, and he's already at work at the low budget "Yoga Hosers," with "Moose Jaws" in the pipeline (part of what Smith calls the "True North Trilogy").

Kevin Smith‘s Tusk is a prime example of a filmmaker in the midst of reinvention. Every since the disaster that was Cop Out, Smith has been on a quest to become a new director. First he shunned Hollywood and self-distributed Red State, a welcome departure from his off-the-wall comedies of the past. Now he’s delving deep into horror with Tusk, the story of a man named Howard (Michael Parks) who kidnaps a podcaster named Wallace (Justin Long) and attempts to turn him into a Walrus. Much like Smith’s up-and-down career path, Tusk has a fascinating trajectory.

There's not a lot more you can do with the Nazi zombie premise, right? Fortunately, that's not a question Tommy Wirkola bothered to ask. The Norwegian writer/director blazed into the genre scene with his 2009 insta-cult hit, Dead Snow, a film whose basis cries out to be loved by horror fans "in the know." Its black-humor attitude and ultra-gore paving the way for it to be crowned the new Evil Dead. If Dead Snow is Wirkola's Evil Dead, Dead Snow 2 is definitely his Army of Darkness.

In the twenty years since his influential debut feature, Clerks, Kevin Smith has established himself as a singular voice in the American indie landscape with his wry observations of disaffected youth culture. With his 2011 horror film, Red State, and his new film, Tusk, Smith reinvents himself by bringing his comedic chops to a new, disturbing milieu.