Spooky Season 2025: Coyotes Review

Coyotes is directed by Colin Minihan and stars real life married couple Justin Long and Kate Bosworth, marking their fourth collaboration together in film. The film is centered around Scott (Long) and Liv (Bosworth), married couple who live in the Hollywood Hills with their daughter when a raging wildfire ignites. To make matters worse, during the fires, a pack of wild coyotes sets their sights on the family, forcing them to fight for their survival as the coyotes and fire draw closer. Boasting a brilliant premise for a horror comedy, the potential was there for it to become the next creature feature classic. Despite all of that promise, the film is mediocre at best.

Long and Bosworth are two incredibly talented actors, and they are certainly the best part of this film. Their real life chemistry translates to the screen, making for a couple that is easy to root for an invest in emotionally, in spite of their flaws. They elevate the film, as it undeniably would not have fared as well without them. Though to his credit, Keir O’Donnell shines in a limited role as Devon, bringing some comedic relief. While its kills aren’t anything overly memorable, they do contain some solid gore effects that definitely takes advantage of its R-rating.

That being said, there isn’t all that much that works here. Saddled with a smaller budget and presumably leaving very little resources at the filmmaker’s disposal, these unfortunate circumstances can be felt, holding Coyotes back for better or worse. Sometimes, a film can stealthily hide a smaller budget, or it can be easy to look past, but this face is clear from the start. In the case of the titular coyotes, they aren’t very menacing or scary in the slightest and never pose much of a threat. Similarly, it doesn’t help that the CGI work on the coyotes is distractingly bad, and very noticeable to the point where their faces almost look like they were generated by AI. It’s never a great sign when the primary antagonists of a film elicit more laughter than fear, especially when they are designed to be menacing.

Now some of the film’s issues could have been easier to forgive, if it had been succeeded elsewhere, however, in this case, it falls completely flat. Seldom funny, most of its humor is lowbrow and obvious, while at other times, it feels out of place. The horror side is even worse, as it consistently fails to be thrilling or genuinely scary despite its frequent attempts to be. Long and Bosworth do much of the heavy lifting as Scott and Liv, playing characters that would have been difficult to care for otherwise. The natural disaster element of its premise, also, could have added more tension in the form of a ticking clock on top of an already stressful situation, but that aspect of the story is barely focused on, seemingly only coming up whenever it is needed to advance the plot.

At the end of the day, Coyotes isn’t all that bad, but it is also a waste of time and talent that could and should have been a lot better than it was. Though the film does bring some interesting ideas to the table, and has a great premise on paper, it is severely lacking when it comes to its execution. One can’t help but see the kind of film it could have been, and what it could have looked like, had it had the kind of budget it needed to execute that vision.

still courtesy of Aura Entertainment

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/