Fantastic Fest 2025 ‘Coyotes’ Review — Gnawing On The Carcass Of Comedy
Coyotes centers around members of a wealthy community in the Hollywood Hills, but their money and vanity blind them from the seriousness of the dangers of the world, like natural disasters and a pack of wild coyotes dismembering everyone in the neighborhood.
Against this backdrop, Scott (Justin Long), Liv (Kate Bosworth), and Chloe (Mila Harris) Stewart attempt to function as a family. Their efforts often falter; Scott is perpetually busy with work, Chloe embodies typical teenage hostility towards her parents, and Liv’s desire is simply to restore unity within the family.
A brutal windstorm causes a power outage, while the savage winds knock down trees that also take out the family SUV. The streets are blocked with debris, nobody can charge their cell phones, and the food supply is dwindling. As the Stewarts try to tackle their boredom with a surprisingly sad game of charades, they soon discover the ferocious coyotes circling their home.
Directed by Colin Minihan, and written by Tad Daggerhart (The Expendables 4), Nick Simon, and Daniel Meersand, Coyotes is a passion project for all involved. Minihan, who also edited the film, worked with Long, Bosworth, Daggerhart, and Simon as executive producers. His wife, Brittany Allen, both scores the film and stars as Julie; a promiscuous woman summoned by Stewart’s drug-addicted, cat-loving neighbor Trip (Norbert Leo Butz). Lead stars Justin Long and Kate Bosworth are also married to each other in real life.
A passion project where a small group of people pulled double and sometimes triple duty, making a little film feel much bigger than it is. The coyotes, crafted using a mix of puppetry and computer-generated visual effects by a team of three talented dudes (Steven Ardal, Karl Hein, and Andres Saab), sometimes don’t move quite as naturally as they should. However, these snarling, blood-letting beasts remain the film’s highlight.
Scott is a comic book artist whose work is incorporated into the editing of the film. Every character is given a dynamic, comic book splash page introduction. Coyotes also utilizes split screen to showcase the importance of what’s at stake in the film or how crucial the next encounter is for the rest of the film.
The split screen, shown in three perspectives, mimics a film shifting formats (like widescreen to IMAX); its slow, gradual transition is visually striking and heightens storytelling and tension.
The performances are also respectable. Keir O’Donnell, who portrays Devon, a pest exterminator, has this smarmy demeanor that seems to channel Jeffrey Combs in The Frighteners. Devon venomously spits out his dialogue to humans as if he despises them yet spends his career killing the things he knows so much about. Justin Long and Kate Bosworth share a natural chemistry with each other.
The film feels massively underdeveloped, though. Coyotes seems to be trying to make some sort of statement about the shallow people who live in the Hollywood Hills; eat the rich and all that, which is even the film’s tagline. But it doesn’t really go anywhere. The character arcs aren’t earned or deserved. For example, Scott seems like a decent guy, but his family makes him feel like working to support them is a bad thing. Then his shortcomings, such as his inability to stand the sight of blood and his lack of handy skills, are somewhat alleviated by the end of the film.
Every character feels shallow and self-centered, which aligns with their harsh environment, but this prevents the viewer from forming any emotional connection. Characters are reduced to a single trait—like pissy daughter, junkie neighbor, or entitled prostitute—and the film never develops them beyond these stereotypes.
The reasoning behind why the coyotes are attacking people is incredibly uninspired. It is probably the first thing that comes to mind as to why an animal would attack someone. Then there’s the humor, that the film heavily relies on, which falls flat. None of the jokes are funny, and everyone comes off as an insufferable douchebag who constantly complains.
The theory always arises, though, that perhaps characters are written this way so the audience will enjoy watching them be torn apart and put through hell but, if that was the point, the ending should be much different.
Coyotes provides a decent amount of action, and the CGI-yotes are the best part of the film, not only because they dispose of a few of these narcissistic characters, but also because they don’t talk or try to be funny when they’re not.
The cast is great, but the screenplay feels like it focuses a bit too much on forced humor and not enough on character development or a worthwhile story.
NEXT: Fantastic Fest 2025 ‘Deathstalker’ Review — A Barbarically Potent Masterpiece
Coyotes (2025), Aura Entertainment
PROS
- VFX are impressive for such a small team.
- Strong performances from the entire cast.
CONS
- The story doesn't go anywhere.
- The characters are ridiculously underdeveloped.
- Coyotes are attacking for the simplest of reasons.
- Every character is unlikeable.
