If you’re a sucker for comedy-horror films like I am, you’ve probably been anticipating the release of Cocaine Bear since the trailer dropped. If you’re not familiar with the new hilariously thrilling film, let me catch you up to speed: Cocaine Bear is exactly what it advertises itself as — a film in which a bear does cocaine — and it is every bit as absurd as it sounds.
Cocaine Bear is in fact very loosely based on the true story of a bear that ingested a significant amount of cocaine after a narcotics-officer-turned-drug-smuggler tossed packages of the substance out of a plane into the Georgia wilderness in 1985 (it’s hard to accurately estimate exactly how much cocaine the bear actually ingested — but the load of lost cocaine found near the bear once amounted to more than 70 pounds, separated into 40 different containers, and each container had been ripped open, so…yeah. The bear did a lot of cocaine). The real story pretty much ends right there, as the bear presumably died shortly after ingesting the substance. This ending obviously wouldn’t make for a very exciting film, so an entirely entertaining bloody rampage was fabricated to take place as the result of a bear being high on cocaine. The comedy and the horror within the situation almost write themselves.
Take note of the words “bloody” and “rampage” — this movie is gore galore. I honestly was not expecting to see carnage like that, so, if that’s something you have a hard time with, I’d definitely recommend skipping this one — unless you’re willing to cover your eyes every five minutes and ‘bear’ the bloodshed (see what I did there).
Beneath jokes and blood and guts, Cocaine Bear actually had several interesting storylines that were able to up the stakes of the whole bear-mauling-people predicament, and between the bear-on-human butchery came hilarious dialogue and interaction among the film’s plethora of characters, all of which serve their own comedic purposes. My personal favorites consist of two foul-mouthed witty pre-teens and a wacky Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who’s almost unrecognizable under a blond wig and a Georgian accent. It is from the human characters that the film is able to build itself; their off-beat personalities and relationships give the film some heart. I will say though, the bear does have its own tear-jerking moments.
Cocaine Bear delivers where it should; it’s funny, it’s campy, it’s exciting, and a bit terrifying — it’ll make you laugh out loud and cringe in your seat. It’s obviously steeped in exaggerated ridiculousness, so don’t go into this film thinking there’s some deep, meaningful, important takeaway — actually, scratch that. There is an important takeaway: NEVER, under any circumstance, give a bear cocaine.