Smokee (2026) Review
Breaking Glass Pictures is releasing SMOKEE, a wild new horror-comedy from writer-director Whit Whitman. The film is currently available on Fawesome, with Breaking Glass Pictures seeking additional streaming and digital platforms to bring the bloody, offbeat creature feature to an even wider audience.
At a remote marriage-counselling retreat, a group of guests arrives expecting relationship therapy, relaxation and an unusual getaway. Instead, cannabis-fuelled rituals and old grudges accidentally summon Smokee, a knife-wielding demon bear, turning the weekend into a chaotic fight for survival.
As the guests struggle to stay alive, buried secrets, betrayals and the strange truth behind the retreat begin to surface. Combining stoner comedy, supernatural horror and creature-feature mayhem, Smokee delivers a bloody and unpredictable take on a very unconventional therapy weekend.
At just under an hour in length, with the end credits taking up a sizeable chunk of that runtime, Smokee certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome. In fact, the whole thing feels rather like a bunch of buddies getting together, having a laugh and deciding to make a silly movie. And, ultimately, that is exactly what it is.
Going in, I was expecting something along the lines of Cocaine Bear, given that this is also drug-related and features a bear. However, the similarities pretty much end there. The bear in Smokee isn’t a literal bear, but someone in a party-costume bear outfit, and there are several of them roaming around by the film’s midway point. That said, this particular bear is responsible for a surprisingly grisly body count, dispatching victims in suitably gruesome fashion.
Credit is certainly due to writer-director Whit Whitman for keeping track of a surprisingly large ensemble. Despite the number of characters on screen, most are given enough screentime to make them identifiable, rather than leaving you wondering, “Who’s that again?” Considering the film’s limited resources, it is an achievement in itself.
The acting is variable, although it would be missing the point to judge Smokee too harshly on that front. This isn’t a film that is particularly concerned with award-worthy performances; it is much more interested in having fun and delivering something deliberately silly. The offbeat humour doesn’t always land as effectively as it perhaps should, but when a film is this knowingly daft, does it really matter?
There are certainly some things to enjoy. An imaginative animated opening-credit sequence immediately establishes the film’s irreverent tone, while the kill scenes deliver a decent helping of gore. What Smokee isn’t, however, is quite the stoner comedy you might expect from its premise. Nor does it come particularly close to the lofty comparisons made in the marketing blurb, which namechecks Evil Dead II, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil and Pineapple Express.
Those comparisons set the bar rather higher than Smokee can realistically reach.
Nevertheless, there is something endearing about its scrappy, homemade spirit. This is clearly a film made for the sheer enjoyment of making a film, and that enthusiasm does occasionally shine through. It may be rough around the edges, its humour can be hit-and-miss, and it certainly won’t appeal to everyone, but it knows exactly what kind of nonsense it wants to be.
If you’re in the mood for something short, silly, gory and sufficiently bizarre to make you occasionally mutter, “WTF?”, Smokee could be just the ticket. Just leave those Evil Dead II expectations at the door.