When a Hollywood project is made about a super-sized black bear that unexpectedly ingests a cake of cocaine, then it should certainly come as no surprise that the film would skyrocket into mainstream popularity and become one of the most sought-after movies at the contemporary box office. As if the title didn’t completely give it away, Cocaine Bear’s captivating premise is based on a real-life situation where a 175-pound American black bear truly ingested a duffel bag full of cocaine and eventually overdosed back in the ‘80s.
But perhaps what’s most intriguing about the latest viral sensation is not its eye-watering special effects and infatuating story, but the simple fact that folks are unsure if it’s actually a horror movie or not. In the weeks leading up to its official release, the aforementioned film was scattered through the shadows of the r/horror subreddit, as well as in the horror discourse on Twitter — although many people are still scratching their heads over which category they should place the project in.
Is Cocaine Bear a horror movie?
By terms of definition, horror relates to an intense feeling of fear — and if a large bear high on cocaine was coming at you, it’s safe to say that you’d be scared. However, there are certain elements in the recently released project that make it different in comparison to other movies in the spooktacular genre. For instance, other than being considered as a creature feature, Cocaine Bear fails to include the most notable tropes that typically occur in horror films.
On the other hand, the film’s pulse-pounding nature and study about a drugged-up animal definitely has elements of thriller written all over it. With that being said, the movie is actually listed on its IMDb page as an “action thriller,” so perhaps the horror label doesn’t actually fit at all. Of course, opinions are completely subjective, so how the film should be analyzed and which category it belongs to is entirely up to the viewer.
Cocaine Bear is out in theaters now.
Published: Feb 24, 2023 02:58 pm