Coyotes (2025) | Movie Review

We’ve all had those moments where we think the universe is conspiring against us – maybe your WiFi dies during a Netflix binge, or you run out of coffee on a Monday morning. But spare a thought for the poor bastards in Colin Minihan’s Coyotes, who are dealing with what can only be described as nature’s equivalent of rolling a critical failure, which includes power outages, wildfires, AND a pack of pissed-off coyotes who’ve apparently been taking notes from the sharks in Deep Blue Sea.

This delightfully unhinged creature feature – penned by the trio of Ted Daggerhart, Daniel Meersand, and Nick Simon – is what happens when you throw a dysfunctional family, some very angry wildlife, and California’s perpetual fire season into a blender and hit “puree.” The result is pure, blood-soaked comedy gold.

Justin Long continues his reign as horror’s favorite everyman-in-peril, and honestly, at this point, the man should get hazard pay for his genre work. From getting his jaw ripped off in Jeepers Creepers to battling walruses in Tusk (never forget, never forgive), Long has perfected the art of playing characters who are cosmically screwed. Here, as comic book artist Scott, he brings that same “why me?” energy that made him so memorable in Drag Me to Hell and The Wave, but with his comedy chops dialed up to eleven. Watching Long try to MacGyver his way out of becoming coyote chow while wearing makeshift “armor” is peak physical comedy – think Home Alone meets The Grey.

Kate Bosworth and Mila Harris round out the family unit with the kind of believable dysfunction that makes you think, “Yeah, these people would absolutely make the worst possible decisions during a crisis.” The opening sequence featuring Katherine McNamara’s self-centered, selfie-snapping influencer getting her comeuppance is many levels of satisfying – because if you’re going to get mauled by wildlife, at least do it for the content, right?

But let’s talk about the real stars here: these coyotes are mean. Forget everything you know about these usually skittish scavengers – Minihan has turned them into mangy engines of destruction that would make the Cujo dog say “damn, chill out.” The practical effects work is gloriously excessive, serving up gore that’s visceral enough to satisfy the bloodthirsty while being just cartoonish enough to keep you giggling. It’s the sweet spot that films like Eight Legged Freaks and Lake Placid nailed – knowing exactly how seriously to take themselves (hint: not very).

The supporting cast, including Norbert Leo Butz as the world’s sleaziest neighbor and Brittany Allen as his hired companion, provides the kind of disposable characters that animal attack movies thrive on. You know exactly who’s getting munched, and the film gleefully delivers on those expectations with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face.

Coyotes doesn’t pretend to be anything more than a gleefully stupid good time, and in an era of elevated horror and trauma metaphors, sometimes you just want to watch people make catastrophically bad decisions while being chased by CGI-enhanced wildlife. It’s comfort food for horror fans – familiar, satisfying, and utterly ridiculous.

It’s dumb, it’s bloody, and it knows exactly what it is. What more could you want from a B creature feature? In the grand tradition of nature-gone-wild cinema, from The Birds to Cocaine Bear, Coyotes earns its place in the pack (pun absolutely intended). It’s the kind of movie that reminds you why B-horror exists: sometimes you just need to watch Justin Long run screaming from angry dogs while California burns in the background. And honestly, we’re here for it.

Coyotes premiered at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles on September 20, 2025. Everyone will get to see it when it’s released on October 3.