Coyotes (2025) sinks its teeth in with a ferocious blend of survival and eco-horror as scathing satire. Written by Tad Daggerhart and Nick Simon, director Colin Minihan delivers a stripped-down brutality with comedic undertones, stranding the rags-to-riches Stewart family in a hostile wilderness with a Santa Ana windstorm wreaking havoc, before pitting them against a pack of ravenous coyotes. What follows is more a cultural reckoning than a creature feature, where ecological anxiety and class warfare merge into a humorous and gory night in the Hollywood Hills.
The setup screams man versus nature, the film complicates this binary: the coyotes are not mindless monsters, but apex predators defending territory against those who consume without consequence. Every snarl and flash of teeth becomes a reminder that humanity’s wealth and material possessions are worthless currency when ecological balance tips against us.
The Stewart family comes from humble beginnings, but they’ve lost the purity of having nothing and cherishing the immaterial. Scott (Justin Long) has become so invested in maintaining the illusion of class that he’s unconsciously created a rift within his family dynamic. His daughter Chloe (Mila Harris) stops calling him “Dad” while his wife (Kate Bosworth) walks on eggshells around him and longs to be seen.
The coyotes themselves embody the revenge of nature, echoing eco-horror touchstones like The Birds (1963), which is directly referenced in a comedic exchange between Julie (Brittany Allen) and Scott as they flee the carnage of his neighbor Trip’s (Norbert Leo Butz) house, the embodiment of excess. Where The Birds captured generalized unease, Coyotes situates its horror in the particular anxieties of the climate crisis: nature has been pushed too far, and the predators are no longer content to remain in the shadows. They fight back, dismantling the fragile hierarchy that places human survival above all else. The Stewarts frantically scramble to survive the night as a fire engulfs the neighborhood and bloodthirsty coyotes encroach on their home. Stripped of their safety nets, the scenario is a savage metaphor for the ways wealth cannot insulate anyone from ecological collapse.
Brittany Allen as Julie is the film’s secret weapon, delivering a performance that’s both hilarious and magnetic. She’s the comedic anchor, stealing every scene with razor-sharp timing and well-spun flair. Allen balances the absurdity of her circumstances with such charm that you can’t take your eyes off her while bringing a biting levity to the Stewart family’s unraveling.
Coyotes doesn’t simply pit one pack against the other, family versus predator — it reveals the fractures within the Stewart family. As the attacks intensify, familial bonds are strained. Blame, fear, and selfishness threaten to undo them faster than teeth and claws ever could. It’s in these moments of domestic volatility that the film sharpens its class critique — the Stewarts cling to objects, status, and illusions of control long after they’ve lost their practical value. The tension between protecting what you own and protecting who you love becomes the film’s underlying focus.
The conclusion is brutal and tender, granting resolution not only to the Stewart family but to the coyotes. Both emerge changed — one group redefined by loss and forced into a hard-earned clarity about what matters, the other reaffirmed in its feral bond as a pack. The film’s most apparent lesson: wealth and possessions dissolve into irrelevance when survival is on the line. When forced to sacrifice the material, what remains is connection, resilience, and the bonds that tether us to one another.
Coyotes is not without rough edges — the pacing drags in its quieter midsection, and the family’s archetypes at times feel too on-the-nose. However, it’s amusing through line and thematic bite more than compensates for any missteps. As survival horror, it’s tense and visceral; as eco-horror, it’s a savage allegory for the climate crisis; as social commentary, it’s a feral reminder that family — not wealth — is the only shelter worth clinging to.
Coyotes had its world premiere at Austin’s Fantastic Fest and opens in theaters on October 3, 2025.
