10 Horror Movie Characters Who BARELY Survived
9. Wallace Bryton - Tusk
Continuing this thread of "What counts as survival, really?," we have Kevin Smith's Tusk, in which obnoxious podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) is drugged and taken hostage by the deranged Howard Howe (a brilliant Michael Parks).
From here, Howe progressively mutilates Howe in order to transform him into a human walrus, amputating his legs, cutting out his tongue, and sewing him into a walrus costume made of human skin, as you do.
Wallace is also psychologically abused in order to make him believe that he's actually a walrus, and though Wallace eventually kills Howard by impaling him on his tusks, it's not much of a happy ending for him.
Ultimately Wallace is damaged beyond repair and still living as a walrus as the end credits roll, now residing in a wildlife sanctuary. Worse still, the ending implies that some vestige of Wallace's prior humanity remains trapped in his shattered psyche.
So yes, Wallace technically survived, but is it even really Wallace as we know him by the end?