COYOTES (2025)

3 stars

Signature Entertainment. Digital 29 December and Blu Ray and DVD 5 January.

COYOTES is the latest in the “Animals Attack” sub genre which continues to fascinate filmmakers. This time out it’s the turn of coyotes, which are moving into urban areas in Los Angeles due to the increase in wildfires.

It opens with a young glam girl, who doesn’t love herself much, honest she doesn’t, out late at night walking her little dog. As she is taking selfies, it starts to rain and she sees a coyote standing in the back of one of her photos just as her ‘baby’ is killed by the wild animal. Growled at, she stumbles into the road and is run down! Her night really didn’t end well as two of the beasts pick at her mangled body.

Devon (Keir O’Donnell), the slightly creepy exterminator is visiting Scott (Justin Long) at his big flashy house in the Hollywood Hills – he is advised he has rats in the walls, though this will soon be the least of his problems.

The film introduces each character with those still frame comic book graphics – which were cool once but seem dated now. Possibly director Colin Minihan has used this contrivance because Scott is an illustrator of some kind – his wife Liv (Kate Bosworth) accuses him of always working. Long and Bosworth are a couple in real life which adds to the believability of their dynamic.

They have a daughter Chloe (Mila Harris) and they live next to the always drugged up Trip (Norbert Leo Butz) – his current ‘date’ Julie (or lady of the night as Scott calls her) mistakenly knocks on their door. She will figure later in the plot.

There is a storm incoming with an increased fire risk in the area – Scott is not worried despite his wife’s concerns. Then, during movie night (featuring the ubiquitous NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) their dog Charlie becomes agitated. Chloe thinks it’s an injured animal outside and wants her dad to go check it out.

Of course it’s a growling coyote… soon they will find themselves trapped by these ferocious canines.

Unfortunately the depiction of the coyotes isn’t entirely convincing, which tends to undercut the intensity of some scenes. As incident piles on incident, the script by Tad Daggerhart and Nick Simon has a nice line in dark humour. It does manage to build some level of tension as the growling animals gain access to the house and they must fight them off. Long is good as the ineffectual artist who doesn’t like the sight of blood with Bosworth playing a much stronger character. The resolution is a bit contrived.

Steve Kirkham