Coyotes (2025) opens in the most affluent part of LA, the bit near the big letters, and in so doing wastes no time establishing a tone for what’s to come: money and means are going to come into crashing conflict with a highly unlikely, but entertaining series of events.
We start with influencer Kat (Katherine McNamara) and her matching-outfit little dog, clearly signposted as victims-in-waiting when Kat pauses to take a selfie whilst walking said chihuahua and picks up a drooling, growling coyote in the frame (the coyotes look more like wolves, but what do I know? I’m from the UK; most of our animal fatalities are caused by cows). However, as with much of the rest of the film, the surprisingly enraged and intelligent coyotes often end up working in tandem, accidentally or otherwise, with other phenomena. Kat isn’t with us long (sorry, but this happens within minutes), dispatched by a hit and run driver as she runs from a coyote, only to then get partially eaten by a coyote.
Oh. So who else lives around here? Meet family man Scott (fan favourite Justin Long), whose minimalistic and no doubt very expensive home is apparently being plagued by rats in the walls; we meet him as eccentric exterminator, Devon, is suggesting that only the fullest response possible can really get rid of rats. Wife Liv (Kate Bosworth) and teenage daughter Chloe (Mila Harris) are, at that moment, more concerned by an incoming storm; we also hear about the recent wildfires which have been terrifying the residents of LA.
We have a few big possibilities for a crisis here then, although – given the title and the pre-credits sequence above – we happen to know which will dominate. The other unfortunate incidents simply provide added pressure, making escape more or less impossible and by necessity holing up a number of wacky neighbours in their respective houses, ready for their home invasion scenarios. Again, it’s quite clear that not all of the people we meet will be around at the end. We can be okay with that, even whilst pondering that way that no one seems to close doors in this universe; you’ve heard of open plan living, well. This film has an extreme version.
Coyotes takes a little time establishing what it clearly can’t wait to do: picking people off in a range of increasingly gory ways whilst simply enjoying being a creature feature. Sure, the characters initially feel quite thinly-drawn, right down to the feckless father and ‘keeping it all together’ mom who are our main focus, but of course this film doesn’t really need to be a sensitive character study. It just needs to get its pieces into play and to give us just enough to believe in. By using a range of techniques such as a knowing script, a building pace, props, split screen and a range of self-referential moments, it is soon able to launch into the action proper. Whilst coyotes are (as yet) underused as agents of human destruction in cinema, the film is still a grab-bag of familiar elements, drawn from a pretty encyclopaedic knowledge of genre cinema, much of which is made clear to the audience.
There are some weaker aspects here, however. Firstly, it’s always feels off when independent films make free use of clips from Night of the Living Dead, bearing in mind what happened to that film and why, exactly, it never made money for its own director. On the other side of the spectrum, some of the SFX/CGI work in Coyotes looks awfully like AI. If it isn’t AI, then the resemblance is unfortunate and will likely draw some fire, because some of the FX here undoubtedly has an Unreal Engine vibe which will emphatically not be for everyone.
If you are happy to look past this though, then it’s all good. You could suggest that there’s some social or environmental commentary going on, but if so it’s pretty light-touch in the mix. The film on the whole is a quirky, grisly tale of improbable perils and a likely crowd pleaser – particularly for a festival crowd, which makes its premiere at Fantastic Fest a sound choice. Sure, there are familiar notes and tropes being used, but for anyone with room in their hearts for something midway between Cocaine Bear and Day of the Animals, then Coyotes has more than enough to offer.
Coyotes (2025) received its premiere at Fantastic Fest and receives a general release on October 3rd.