The crux of Tusk is... just the idea of being trapped with a madman who wants to turn you into an animal.
- By the time Wallace wakes up after being drugged the first time, Howe has already cut his leg off. It takes several minutes for Wallace to clear his mind since he is feeling dizzy, but he soon finds out that he can't feel his left leg. Much to his horror, he realizes that his leg has been amputated, and Howe's false story about what happened only makes Wallace realize there's something very, very wrong about the situation he's in.
- Howe eventually explains Wallace what he wants: he is trying to turn Wallace into a human walrus so he can have his friend "Mr. Tusk" (whom Howe killed for survival) back. He later attaches Wallace's arms to his torso, leaving him unable to move them. Wallace desperately asks him why is he doing this, only for Howe to slap him for screaming and then mock his pleas for help. It's clear for Wallace and the audience that Howe is definitely insane.
- Howe explaining his backstory to an unconscious Wallace as he mutilates him. He reveals that his parents died when he was a kid and that he was sexually abused by several people in the orphanage he lived in ever since. As he talks, the camera shows his drawings and studies for what he wants to do with Wallace, hinting towards the reveal of his true plan with the repeated emphasis on the comparisons of walrus and human bodies, and finally reveals Wallace, now with no legs, his arms sewed into his torso and his tongue removed. And Howe is still nowhere near done yet.
- The reveal of Wallace in the suit. The camera is careful to show parts of it at a time, first following the chain attached to it to highlight its mangled flipper, and then showing parts of the body (where we can see visible remnants of other victims, including another person's face and an ear). When we finally see Wallace's face in the suit, the fast zoom out on him is ripped straight out of a comedy, but even if the intended effect is "so shocking/disturbing, it's hilarious", it's undeniable that the image is still shocking/disturbing.
- A considerable aspect of the suit's scary factor comes from the truly harrowing tongue-less bellows Wallace makes. Props must be given to Justin Long; he truly sounds like a man whose mind is being warped by incomprehensible trauma.
- The scene where Wallace is expected to swim and, of course, doesn't... while seeing the skeleton of a previous attempt underwater. This scene, along with the flesh on Wallace's suit, makes you finally realize what happened to all those people who answered the ad in the bathroom.
- The scene where Howe strips naked and swims with Wallace...before suddenly forcing his head underwater. Once you get past the initial shock that it looks like he's trying to make Wallace fellate him, when Wallace comes back up, his face is briefly sucked into the suit in a manner not unlike the head of an uncircumcised penis. It is just as nice to look at as you may imagine.
