Director(s) – Robert D. Parham (Mad as Hell, The Hanged Man) and Rene Margary (Love Code)
Starring – Elise Hollywood Evans (Snow Black, Everyday Amazing with Sky Alton), Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Escape from Death Block 13, Dead Man Rising), and Gary Turner (Reanimation Team, Jackson Bolt)
Release Date – 2024
Rating – 2/5
I don’t think Cocaine Bear realized that they would be creating one of the most popular trends in indie cinema when it was released several years back. I’ve been a fan of the wild “when nature attacks” films for as long as I remember going all the way back to films like Night of the Lepus and The Birds. When you mix these random animals with illegal drugs then you are sitting on a movie idea that I have to see.
While Cocaine Bear is not the first drug fueled killer animal I’ve seen, it did spawn so many other films like it. So far I’ve been lucky enough to see Crackcoon, Cocaine Shark, Cocaine Cougar, Cocaine Crabs from Outer Space and now Cocaine Roach.
While I was preparing for my review of Crackcoon I came across the imdb page for Cocaine Roach. I quickly searched for co-director Robert Parham on social media so I could track down a copy of the film for review. He was kind enough to send over a review link and I added it to my October horror binge. I want to thank Robert for allowing Horror Society and myself the opportunity to check it out!
**spoiler Alert** The film follows two slackers who are tasked with doing a coke drop off for their drug dealer. A simple transaction turns deadly when the trap house they are meeting their handler happens to be the home of cocaine addicted roaches who will stop at nothing to get their next fix. **Spoiler alert**
I knew absolutely nothing, and I mean, nothing about Cocaine Roach aside from the title. I didn’t watch the trailer, read the synopsis, or look at reviews of the film prior to watching it. My only look into the film was what could be seen on the poster. I’m glad I went into this one blind because nothing could have prepared me for the film I was about to witness.
The acting in this one is very inconsistent but I fucking loved it. The film has a lot of colorful characters that really stand out. Their personalities are bold and memorable with the cast really going all in for the scene. However, some have inexperience and it shows. While they are fully dedicated to their performances, their dialogue and so on is a bit awkward and stiff.
The story for this one combines LGBTQ+, crime, and the cocaine crazed animal/insects craze that we expected. While the crime and cocaine roaches were expected, I was not expecting the film to have the drag presence that it does. Don’t get me wrong, this was fantastic and very welcomed coming from a genre fan who grew up on John Waters and To Wong Fo. However, not all of it really meshes well. Personally, I wish the film focused more on the drug dealer and the other drag queen/trans characters as they fight for their lives. Instead, we get them in segments that break up the actual story, whether it be movie clips or television show episodes, that feature these characters and serve very little purpose. All it does is add to the film’s run time and destroy the pacing. The film is too chaotic with all of this together.
Finally, the film has a lot of visual effects that are not that impressive. While the film’s budget does dictate the effects, I feel this one would have benefited from having plastic roaches on strings or sticks instead of the visual effects we get. Also, I wish the film was a little more bloody. It’s not violent and those looking for a body count will be very disappointed. Overall, Cocaine Roaches was n interesting idea but the execution is a bit off. The movie struggles with it’s own identity and at the end of the day the film missed it’s mark. I seriously wanted to love it but I couldn’t get into it.
