Cocaine Bear and why it was a surprise

I wasn't particularly too excited about this film when it was announced. But as someone who enjoys a decent amount of movies in the animal attack subgenre I decided to check it out in theatres anyway. I went into this with no prior knowledge of the subject matter, which is odd as unusual historical events are kinda my specialty. The trailer looked bloody, energetic and highley entertaining. Overall, it felt like a perfect movie to switch my brain off and let me get carried away by the story and action.

In the end though the movie itself surprised me quite a lot. Not becuase it's a particularly great film or a particularly bad one either, but because of just how scary it was for being marketed as a horror comedy. The movie was, in the end pretty enjoyable, but not my favorite film of the year so far.

I would usually going over how the movie delt in terms of acting, writing, storyline etc., but I'll ditch that format for the sake of this review and will touch upon it whilst looking at some other aspects I believe are equally as importan in this case.

The Horror Aspect

A horror comedy must equally balance out the scares and the laughs, and this one does it pretty well for what it could be. Now I'm not easily scared or disturbed by movies, shows, books and whatnot, but, animal attack movies about bears do seem to get under my skin a lot for some reason. A great example of this is Backcountry, which is a far superior and, overall, more disturbing film than this one, which I highley reccomend to anyone who loves a great film on the topic. I would rank it as one of the best in the genre (along with Spielberg's Jaws of course). This one certainly didn't freak me out as much as this one, given that it is indeed far more action oriented and the deaths aren't what you would call realistic, but I for sure jumped a few times during the runtime. The characters (a weakopint in many slasher films) were done well enough and were pretty distinct for me to actually care about them and not want to see them get mauled. I wouldn't call it the scariest film of the decade so far, but if you want some low brow horror that isn't too sleazy, this one does well in that aspect. If you want something more sophisticated, as previously mentioned, go and watch Backcountry, you won't regret it.

The Comedy Aspect

As mentioned, horror comedies need to balance the scares and the laughs. I would say, whilst the movie's horror aspect is pretty strong, the comedy is where it falls a bit flat. Not every joke worked for me, and I wouldn't call any of the humor high brow or particularly smart, but this is a movie called Cocaine Bear, I didn't exactly come in expecting Monthy Python. That being said, the black comedy of this movie could work pretty well if you have a morbid sense of humor like I do, and the occasional dirty joke works well for what it's trying to accomplish. I do think some scenes could have faired better if they went in a more general horror direction, it had enough moments that made me laugh and smirk that I think it worked ok.

Faithufulness to the real events

I'm usually a massive snob when it comes to historical accuracy, given that something doesn't compromise quality or entertaiment value by remaining faithful to the real events behind the story. However, a clear distinction should be made between things based on real events and inspired by real events.

Being based on real events implies you're directly adapting a real world event, which means maximum accuracy to honour the real people and places involved in it should be expected. I already mentioned some examples of this being done. Some examples of movies and shows that do this well are: The Ghost and The Darkness, Captain Phillips, Tora, Tora, Tora!, Agora, HBO's Chernobyl miniseries, Wolf of Wall Street HBO's Rome, Zodiac etc. Some examples of this being done poorly are: The Patriot, Braveheart, Pearl Harbour, 1492, Apocalypto, Michael Hirst's Elizabeth duology, Timeline etc.

Inspired by implies that you're not directly adapting any real historical events or figures, but are merely taking inspiration from these events. This tactic is used quite often by horror movies, which can lead to both great and mixed results (The Entity, The Ammityville horror, The Conjuring franchise, The Haunting in Connecticut duology etc.) and by most works of historical fiction.

As this movie never states to be a direct adaptation of the real events (and it had virtually nothing in common with them apart from Andrew C. Thorton the Third throwing several packages of cocaine into the wild where they were found by a black bear) I don't hold my usual grudge against it. However, unlike it's film counterpart, the actual bear didn't murder anyone, it simply overdosed on cocaine and it's corpse is now on display as a historical oddity.

Do I reccomend it?

Yes and no.

If you're hoping for a smart horror satyre like Final girls, Tucker and Dale vs Evil or Cabin in the woods then you won't get it by watching this. I don't reccomend it to people with a weak stomach either as the film is, not surprisingly, quite brutal. If you want a silly horror comedy with some mild action elements and enjoy movies in the animal attack subgenre or like comedies with a morbid sense of humor then you will certainly enjoy it. It's not an experiance for everyone, but I had a good time whilst watching it. Overall this is the perfect switch your brain off horror movie.

Trailers: