It's a bear that does cocaine. Need we say more? This year's Cocaine Bear was a fun anomaly in cinema. It wasn't a conventional horror movie, but it also didn't go out of its way to parody the genre. So, what is it?
Whatever it was, it was a success. Despite mixed critical reviews, it was a box office success with a gross of $89 million against its $30 million budget. It even has a Funko Pop. And that $30 million budget seems high. The story took a few liberties from its source material, as the real-life "Cocaine Bear" died pretty soon after consuming the drugs without ripping anyone to shreds. That would have been a much quicker movie.
As mentioned, the bear that does cocaine doesn't fall into one box regarding genre. On the one hand, the film does check many of the tropes of "killer-on-the-loose" movies. On the other hand, however, it never takes itself too seriously and enjoys poking fun at its own admittedly outlandish premise. But does this mean it's a parody? Well, not exactly. See why it's so difficult to categorize this thing? So let's look at how Cocaine Bear rides the lines between horror and comedy and its success pulling it off.
The Conventional Horror Elements
Disregard the thing that's doing the killing, and this feels like your standard slasher movie. Think about it: characters from different backgrounds are brought together in one location, in this case, a forest. They all have some reason for being there. Syd and his accomplices want to find their missing cocaine, Sari is looking for her runaway daughter, and Character Actress Margo Martindale wants to keep her park safe as the ranger.
The characters cannot leave the park until they've accomplished their goals, which is made all the more difficult when the killer picks off the captives one by one. See, sounds pretty conventional so far, right? Ultimately, as with almost every other slasher film, the killer has the decency to spare the main characters' lives while tearing nearly everyone in the supporting cast to pieces.
The point is, replace the bear with any standard human killer, and the primary story likely wouldn't change too much. But that wouldn't be very exciting, would it? That'd be the same story we've seen hundreds of times before. Obviously, Cocaine Bear is slasher film-adjacent, but the sheer outlandishness of its premise means it's so much more.
Is It a Comedy?
While some filmgoers will argue that the movie is just a heightened thriller, others will see the parody underlining the entire film. First, the idea of a bear ingesting cocaine and going on a murderous rampage is so insane that it must come from real life. Bears are already pretty scary but will typically leave you alone if you leave them alone.
That is not the case here. When this bear kills, it kills. (Don't worry, it's CGI). So many deaths are way more gruesome than they need to be. Just take Jesse Tyler Ferguson's character Peter. While running from the bear, he trips into some of the cocaine and gets it on his face. The bear smells that and runs up a tree to where Peter hides. While hanging upside down in the tree, Peter is torn to bits by the bear, leaving little to the audience's imagination.
It doesn't stop there. Paramedics arrive to tend to an injured character, actress Margo Martindale, and it seems like they can take her to safety at the hospital. But not so fast. Did they forget a bear that did cocaine is after them? The bear attacks the fleeing ambulance, killing one paramedic and causing the other to drive into a tree, where she flies out the windshield to her death.
In the chaos, Martindale (still strapped to a stretcher) falls out the back and is dragged to graphic death facedown on the pavement. Then, to top everything off, drug lord Syd has his entrails pulled out of his body by the bear's cubs at the film's end.
There are other comedic elements, too, like police officer Bob's heartwarming dog subplot that has absolutely nothing to do with the bear. Sometimes when the characters crack jokes about the absurd nature of the situation, it feels like they're aware that none of this makes sense. However, it's not a strict parody, as the risk of death is always there. Most of the film treats the bear as an imminent threat that could kill the characters at any moment (minus when it passes out on top of Eddie).
The Verdict
So what is Cocaine Bear? It has a lot of the elements of a typical slasher. Characters held captive in one location, a dangerous killer on the prowl, and a ticking clock pushing the characters as death closes in. It also sends up many of those same elements with its bonkers choice of a killer and over-the-top graphic deaths.
The story is silly and way out there, but the risk of death is always present for the characters (at least the supporting ones). Ultimately, it's up to each viewer to decide what to make of this jumbled mess of a campy delight. At least until the sequels.