With a title like Coyotes, and a synopsis that reads “a family trapped in their Hollywood Hills homes as they fight for survival when caught between a raging wildfire and a pack of savage coyotes”, you should not be expecting a cinematic masterpiece. What you should be expecting is a nature-gone-wild, midnight, B-movie flick that is so unashamedly stupid that it’s incredibly fun. And does Coyotes live up to that expectations? Oh hell yes.
This family has everything you could ever want. A beautiful home, endless wealth, and an adorable dog. However, despite these pleasantries, the family is deep in conflict. Scott (Justin Long), is consumed by his work as a comic book author. Chloe (Mila Harris), is going through the typical teenage angst phase. While Liv (Kate Bosworth), is caught in between, struggling to communicate between the parties. The family is in conflict and they know it. So when heavy winds and a power outage forces the family to shelter in place. However, despite being prepared for the worst, nothing could prepare them when a pack of savage coyotes decide this family is next on the menu.
Coyotes is at its best when it leans all the way into its absurdity. The premise alone, wild coyotes relentlessly stalking a family as if they’re the stars of a creature feature from the bargain bin sets the tone, but the film truly shines when it refuses to hold back. Moments like the family scrambling to hide or improvising a makeshift cage out of a baby’s playpen are so wonderfully over the top that you can’t help but laugh while also being caught up in the tension. The movie knows exactly what it is: a ridiculous, self-aware B-movie that doesn’t try to disguise its stupidity but instead embraces it with open arms. That awareness is what makes it fun. Once you surrender to its nonsense, once you accept that this isn’t high art but pure schlocky entertainment, the ride becomes surprisingly entertaining. It’s chaotic, silly, and more than a little unhinged, but that’s precisely why it works.
However, Coyotes completely loses its footing whenever it tries to shoehorn in this half-baked family drama about learning to be present and reconnecting with loved ones. It’s the kind of clunky emotional subplot you see tacked onto plenty of midnight movies, a way to pretend there’s depth so you might care about the characters beyond being fresh meat. But here it drags the entire film down. Instead of heightening the chaos, the drama feels awkward, obligatory, and distractingly out of place. I didn’t come to a movie called Coyotes for a lecture on family values. I came to see packs of rabid coyotes ripping faces off and gnawing on lungs, and every time the film swerves away from that delirious mayhem into forced sentimentality, the momentum screeches to a halt.
In the end, Coyotes delivers exactly what it promises, a knowingly dumb, gloriously self-aware nature-gone-wild B-movie. It’s not aiming for depth, and it doesn’t need to. The best way to approach it is to sit back, embrace the ridiculousness, and let the chaos wash over you. As far as midnight movies go, it’s a crowd-pleaser through and through.
My Rating: B-
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