Coming to theaters from Aura Entertainment on October 3, 2025, Coyotes sinks its teeth into the Horror-Comedy genre with a fiery premise: a family trapped in their Hollywood Hills home must fend off both a raging wildfire and a pack of savage coyotes.
Directed by Colin Minihan (It Stains and Sands Red 2016, What Keeps You Alive 2018), the film stars real-life couple Justin Long (Drag Me To Hell 2009, Barbarian 2022) as dad Scott and Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush 2002, 21 2008) as mom Liv, whose natural chemistry gives the chaos some charm. But despite their efforts—and some convincingly menacing creatures—the humor rarely lands, and the scares never quite bite as hard as they should.
The plot of Coyotes quickly tangles itself in too many directions, struggling to decide what kind of story it wants to tell. The wildfire feels more like an afterthought than a driving force, an external threat that never truly feels imminent or pressing until the film’s final moments.
At the same time, the script tries to layer in family strain, centering on Scott’s workaholic tendencies and his emotional absence as a husband and father. But instead of deepening the narrative, these internal and external conflicts compete for attention, leaving both underdeveloped. The result is a film that feels overstuffed yet oddly hollow, as if it is checking boxes for danger and drama without ever committing to either.
The performances in Coyotes aim for a playful, campy energy but often veer into unintentionally cheesy territory. Long and Bosworth clearly lean into the absurdity of the premise, delivering exaggerated reactions and snappy one-liners that seem meant to heighten the film’s darkly comedic tone. Brittany Allen’s (Jigsaw 2017, What Keeps You Alive 2018) Julie is clearly written as the comic relief. Still, her over-the-top delivery and grating one-liners make her more irritating than funny.
Unfortunately, the execution does not quite land—the humor feels forced, and the performances oscillate awkwardly between parody and sincerity. The comedy writing does not help matters either; the jokes feel cheap and underbaked, relying on surface-level gags rather than sharp wit or clever timing. With so little character development, it is challenging to invest in the family’s fate or feel genuine emotional stakes. What might have been a clever, self-aware satire instead comes off as uneven and hollow, leaving the audience unsure whether to laugh with the film or at it.
The cinematography in Coyotes has its moments of flair, particularly with the comic book–style flashes that introduce each character, nodding to Scott’s job as a comic book writer. These brief visual touches add a hint of personality and fun to the proceedings, but the film never builds on the conceit beyond these moments. The coyotes themselves look relatively realistic and threatening, but there’s something missing in the framing, pacing, or tension that keeps them from truly instilling fear. The rest of the movie leans on fairly standard shot choices, especially during the wildfire and creature attacks, which means the initial creative spark never evolves into a fully realized visual language. It is a missed opportunity to make the film look as distinctive—or as terrifying—as its premise.
In the end, Coyotes feels like a film caught between two instincts: wanting to be a sharp, self-aware Horror Comedy and wanting to deliver genuine thrills. Minihan’s direction shows flashes of style, and the concept itself has real bite, but the uneven tone and shallow character work dull the impact. It is a reminder that balancing scares and satire is trickier than it looks—and that even the wildest premises need more than chaos to sink their teeth in truly. This is why Cryptic Rock gives Coyotes 2 out of 5 stars.
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