Movie Trailer for ‘Cocaine Bear’ Promises Humor, Horror, and Gore
Yesterday, the Internet lit up over something called "Cocaine Bear." If you missed it, it isn't a metaphor for anything. It is a movie title that gives you exactly what's advertised: a bear that does entirely too much cocaine.
If you didn't catch the trailer when it dropped yesterday, you missed a very odd, suspenseful movie trailer.
Warning: Language, Violence
A drug-fueled bear going on a murder spree for no apparent reason seems like as good a reason as any to make a movie. The trailer claims it's "based on real events," and, in fact, there was a bear that did get into a bunch of lost cocaine in the middle of Georgia in 1985.
Via Entertainment Weekly:
Fortunately for the good people of Blue Ridge, GA., the real version of the story is less gruesome. In 1985, investigators searching for drugs dropped by an airborne smuggler discovered the ripped-up remnants of cocaine packages in Georgia's Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest. Each of the 40 packages reportedly held a kilogram of cocaine, or about 88 pounds in all, valued to be worth as much as $20 million at the time.
Nearby, they also found a large, deceased black bear who had apparently helped himself to the product. According to an Associated Press article from the time, officials believed the bear had eaten "several million dollars worth of the cocaine."
"The bear got to it before we could, and he tore the duffel bag open, got him some cocaine and OD'd (overdosed)," Gary Garner of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the outlet.
Obviously, this would be a very short movie, so some liberties were taken, like hiring a viral TikTok star to play the role of an EMT.
Scott Seiss, the comedian best known for his "Angry Retail Guy" TikToks, is featured prominently in the trailer, including in the opening scene. He confirmed to fans via social media that it was indeed him in the movie.
Ridiculous Movie Premises Aren't New
Of course, there are several movies, particularly in the horror genre, that are as ridiculous as they are suspenseful and gruesome. On the tame side is the campy thriller Snakes on a Plane, featuring Samuel L. Jackson. But there are some absolutely insane movie concepts that have been made to work.
Winnit the Pooh: Blood and Honey is a slasher/thriller about the lovable bear of our childhoods. But when Pooh Bear went into the public domain, a small independent studio latched on immediately to deliver a movie about Pooh and Piglet going feral and hunting down people to eat.
That same studio, Jagged Edge Productions, is now working on a movie based on Bambi.
Then, there was 2010's Rubber, the story of a tire named Robert - yes, it had a name - that came to life with psychic powers that let it kill people.
There's an audience for this kind of movie... if you're in that audience, then maybe Cocaine Bear is for you.