If you're one who thinks that Hollywood only makes sequels and comic book movies these days, then you’re in for a treat this weekend.
The new movie “Cocaine Bear” goes into wide release Friday – and yes, it’s about a huge black bear that goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine.
Playing off that renewed interest in animals gone wild, the Normal Theater is screening two of its own nature-run-amok films at 7 p.m. Saturday. They are 1981’s “Wild Beasts” (about a zoo where the water supply becomes contaminated with PCP) and 2020’s “Psycho Ape” (about a killer gorilla that escapes from a zoo and goes on a murdering spree).
The screenings are in partnership with Severin Films. Addison Binek, the director and co-writer of “Psycho Ape,” will be at the theater for a post-show Q&A and meet and greet.
“We’ve been seeing over the last few years a real attraction to these genre films, these niche films, that look at some of these more curious aspects of filmmaking – some things that are off the beaten path,” said Adam Fox, the civic arts manager for the Town of Normal who runs the Normal Theater. “It’s a lovely chance to peel back the curtain a little bit. We love it whenever we can bring in talent associated with the film, to have a conversation about how it was made.”
Movies about “nature’s revenge” are a mainstay in American filmmaking. “Jaws” is perhaps the most notable example.
It’s a genre that’s interesting to Eric Wesselmann, a psychology professor at Illinois State University who explores the intersection of psychology and pop culture as one of WGLT’s Psych Geeks. He wrote about “Cocaine Bear” and other nature-bites-back films on his Normal Theater blog.
“The emotion of fear is something that’s global. It seems to be wired into us as a species, no matter where we live or our cultural backgrounds. What we learn to fear oftentimes takes much more nuance, depending on the backgrounds we’re raised in,” Wesselmann said. “But things like fearing predators – and I’m talking about animal predators, not the ‘Alien vs. Predator’ situation – that seems to be something that we as humans learn pretty easily. Largely we talk about learning what to fear as a conditioning-type thing. We seem predisposed to pick up fears about natural predators more quickly than we do about supernatural creatures or something like that.”
