Kevin Smith takes pot-shots at shock jocks, religious hypocrisy, and gun control in his latest film, the subversive, sinister and oh so skewed, TUSK (MA).

Come on, be a smarty, come and listen to the Not See Party. The Not See Party is a duo of podcast tyros, Wallace and Teddy, who wax lyrical over internet video posts. One in particular that takes their fancy is a young Canadian who inadvertently lops off a limb while practicing Kill Bill moves with a samurai sword.

Wallace decides to get the heck to Toronto, pronto, but on arrival, discovers the kid has committed seppuku thus putting the interview into hara-kiri ville.

Disappointed, he visits a local pub where he notices an intriguing handbill offering free lodging in the home of an elderly man with seafaring tales to tell. Excited by the prospect of interviewing the mystery man for the podcast, Wallace takes him up on his offer.

The story of Tusk began on June 25, 2013, as Kevin Smith waited for Scott Moser to show up for their weekly “SModcast.” Minutes before the podcast began, Smith learned about a bizarre “lodger wanted” ad that would come to dominate the next year of his life.

“Someone tweeted me a link to this listing that appeared on the UK site gumtree.com, which is like a British Craigslist,” recalls Smith. “It was far more lyrical than the typical ad. The guy said ‘I’ve lived a long and storied life including a period when I was lost at sea with a walrus I named Gregory as my only companion. I have been for some time constructing a very realistic walrus suit. In exchange for free lodging, two hours a day, your job would be to dress up in a walrus suit and make walrus noises. I will throw you fish and crabs.’”

What elevates this creepy, squeamish Gothic Grand Guignol is the character of Howard Howe played by Michael Parks.

His eerie eloquence in the delivery of his seafaring adventures is ear-edifyingly exquisite, elegant in expression, redolent of literary allusions to Herman Melville, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jack London, Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway. Indeed, Hemingway appears in a flash back scene during the D Day invasion, giving ship’s cook, Howe, some earnest advice.

The character of Howe, and Park’s amazing portrayal of him, sets him among other celebrated silver tongued psychos like Hannibal Lecter, although his cannibalising is more in the mould of Dr Moreau or Victor Frankenstein.

He’s the product of a truly traumatised childhood, seeing his parents assassinated and then plunged into an orphanage where he was preyed upon by priests, politicians, nurses and nuns.

On his trail is a detective, played by an uncredited A list American actor. The character is portrayed as a Quebec Colombo crossed with a dash of Clouseau.

The soundtrack does contain drum centric instrumental, Tusk, by Fleetwood Mac, but does not utilise the Beatles’ I am the Walrus.

Nevertheless, TUSK is a magical mystery tour of a fevered and febrile imagination.