Colin Minihan, the co-director the Grave Encounters franchise and the director of the 2018 thriller What Keeps You Alive, has now returned with Coyotes. His latest is both a creature-feature and a disaster flick, and the movie draws inspiration from familiar news headlines. The execution, though, is hardly what I’d consider realistic.
For most folks watching Coyotes, the titular creatures don’t tend to come up in conversation until the news reports their unwelcome presence somewhere. And by now everyone, or at least anyone who goes online, has seen those pet vests that are designed to withstand coyotes and other predators. To my surprise, one of these garish yet effective accessories doesn’t actually appear anywhere in Minihan’s movie, which is set smack dab in the Hollywood Hills a.k.a. Coyote Country. Frustrating as it might be for myself to see the characters’ pooch go so unprotected, that small detail is quite neat and clever. It just goes to show how unprepared these people are for their imminent emergencies.
Real-life couple Justin Long and Kate Bosworth play a fictional couple who’s not quite clicking lately, due to the husband’s preoccupation with his work. However, Bosworth’s role isn’t entirely absolved of blame for what’s in store. Being annoyed about Long’s character not trimming the branches, ones that would soon fall on their car, just seems easier than doing the task herself. On top of the bubbling marital issues is a typically obnoxious movie teen (Mila Harris) who finds everything adults do to be “cringe” and whose default mood is surly. Her worst offense, albeit one done out of ignorance rather than malice, comes later in the movie as the coyotes finally descend upon the main characters’ home.
The poster for Coyotes features the tagline “Eat the Rich”. Sure, it’s both unoriginal and on the nose, but keep in mind, this isn’t the same sort of movie you find lumped in with the likes of Ready or Not or The Menu. That tagline is taken rather literally as the story’s namesakes prey on people whose income bracket has really nothing to do with their fates. It also helps that, apart from an eccentric, robe-clad neighbor (Norbert Leo Butz) with a penchant for “ladies of the night”, the characters are fairly normal-acting. A daughter’s pissy attitude and a husband’s cluelessness hopefully aren’t enough to make you side with the furry intruders.
It’s true that Minihan didn’t pen Coyotes, but he doesn’t mute the humor in Nick Simon and Tad Daggerhart’s script, either. It’s that familiar brand of discomfort-as-comedy, as the characters interact with one another, or they try to escape their predicament with plenty of errors and remarks along the way. Barbarian’s Long is back at playing inept for laughs, and Bosworth is some more patient version of the weary sitcom wife. Meanwhile, one of Minihan’s frequent collaborators (Brittany Allen) provides a string of small laughs; she’s that aforementioned sex worker who, incidentally, helps redeem the contentious core family.
Coyotes isn’t a standard “when animals attack” movie, and perhaps that’s for the best. The story indeed hyperfocuses on the human characters, but even still, there is no shortage of perilous encounters with those four-legged killers amid the raging wildfires. Dubious CGI notwithstanding, these moments provide this hairy survival tale a bit more to chew on whenever the commentary on the human subjects gets lost in the flames.
Coyotes premiered at Fantastic Fest 2025 before opening in U.S. theaters on October 3.
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