You know 2023 is off to a great start when a movie like Cocaine Bear gears up to hit cinemas right out of the gate. If you’ve somehow managed to avoid any and all information surrounding this movie, rest assured that all the information you need is right there in title.
Indeed, Cocaine Bear chronicles the gore-soaked adventures of a 500-pound American black bear who goes on a rampage in a small town in Georgia after swallowing a brick of cocaine, giving us a firsthand account on what may have gone on in the life of history’s most zealous apex predator; a title that was likely only held for 15 minutes at most, but a title that was held nevertheless.
We mean history in a literal sense; Cocaine Bear is based on a true, much more watered-down event that occurred back in 1985, when a much smaller American black bear was found dead in northern Georgia with 40 empty cocaine containers surrounding its body. Whatever transpired during that bear’s surprise bender is a mystery that we’ll never solve, but Cocaine Bear director Elizabeth Banks is all but ready to grant us a peek into what’s most likely everyone’s headcanon.
While the real-life events remain the biggest and best inspiration for Cocaine Bear, the influences don’t end there. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Banks revealed that a certain Sam Raimi classic was very much on the mind when this particular romp was being put together.
“I mean, Evil Dead, just in terms of tone, is such a touchpoint for me. You know, Sam has a great wink about what he does. I love gore. I think it’s really fun. It’s always struck me as very funny in a weird way. It’s a trope of the genre that I wanted to play with in this case. I just didn’t think we could make a movie about a rampaging bear on a bender without the gore. I mean, bears literally eat their prey alive.”
We’re hedging our bets that Cocaine Bear is going to take the cake for this year’s bear-related cinema, seeing as how its closest competitor so far is none other than Winnie the Pooh: Bloody and Honey. As ridiculous as Cocaine Bear is no doubt going to be, we’ll take its self-aware, full-throttle, imaginative premise over Blood and Honey‘s self-indulgent, tired meta humor any day.
Cocaine Bear will release to theaters on Feb. 24.