“Il meglio è l’inimico del bene. (Perfect is the enemy of good.)”
– Attributed to Voltaire in 1770.
If we spend our time pursuing perfect, we’ll miss out on a great deal. What ideal we set up for ourselves — the right job, the right salary, the right house — we will always be pushing toward a goal post we’ll never reach. Offspring of Baby Boomers understand this because they were raised with the notion that only upon obtaining certain societal markers can one feel whole. The fundamental problem being that by perpetually being in pursuit, one starts to lose sight of what’s in front of you and what matters within it. This is the pathos that courses through director Colin Minihan’s (What Keeps You Alive) animal attack horror comedy Coyotes, premiering at Fantastic Fest 2025 before releasing in theaters at the start of October, led by Justin Long (Tusk; House of Darkness) and Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns; House of Darkness).
From the outside, all seems well in the Hollywood Hills for comic creator Scott (Long), Liv (Bosworth), and daughter Chloe (Mila Harris), as the three continue to get used to their new home. A closer inspection, however, reveals not just a rat infestation, but a small rift growing between the trio as Scott works to finish his latest project, putting off things he deems not worth worrying about, like the tree he promised he’d trim before the next storm which crushes their car in the latest tempest. Making matters worse, there’s a roving band of coyotes moving through the hills that are on the hunt and the powerless, neighborhood is ripe for the staking.
Mila Harris as Chloe in COYOTES. Photo courtesy of AURA Entertainment.
Written by Nick Simon (The Pyramid) and Tad Daggerhart (Expendables 4) from a story by them along with Daniel Meersand (The Pyramid), Coyotes walks the line between horror and comedy in a similar manner as recent releases The Toxic Avenger (2025), Death of a Unicorn (2025), Clown in a Cornfield (2025), and Hell of a Summer (2025), utilizing violence to underscore real issues while using comedy to lighten the bloodletting. Whereas the aforementioned films sought to identify corporate violations upon their community, avarice, generational trauma, and social stature, Coyotes utilizes the animal attack subgenre to investigate humanity’s impact on nature, the false presumption that nature won’t fight back, and what really matters in life. Unlike other animal attack films wherein the humans enter the animal’s domain, this is a slight inversion but with the caveat that the whole reason that the animals, in this specific case being coyotes, engage humans violently is due to the continued and unaddressed invasion of their natural habitat and general damage to the environment without taking steps to employ repair or replacement procedures. This isn’t just imagined or presumed as Minihan makes a point after the cold open to use the opening title and credit sequence to establish the tumultuous nature of California living in which more powerful storms and faster burning fires have shifted migration patterns, reduced food sources within the natural ecosystem, and more, resulting in more coyote sightings in town. Even before getting to this, though, the cold open establishes not only humanity’s disdain for nature, but for itself as friend turns on friend verbally in one moment and then violence is met with indifference by the assailant in another. Given what transpires throughout the film, the ways in which humans are introduced and their core aspects presented and developed, the opening implies a perspective from Minihan that humanity is its own problem and our “higher processing” capability over animals doesn’t make us actually superior when we use it the way we do. As an audience, we tend to find ourselves rooting for the humans and, gratefully, of the small ensemble, the failings of Scott, Liv, and Chloe are negligible compared to the rest, thereby making us fear for them while actually siding with the coyotes (especially considering the in-world logic the screenwriters created for the coyotes’ bloodlust toward humanity).
The lighter side of the film comes in the way Minihan introduces the characters and executes the violence. Before we learn that Scott works in comics, Minihan incorporates freeze-frames to illustrate (both figuratively and literally) who everyone is with a classic, Ben-Day dot-style drawing and their name. It’s somewhat gimmicky, but it both creates a link to Scott, our key character for this adventure, and the way he engages with the world, and conveys what level of seriousness you need to bring to Coyotes. No denigration on Minihan, the writers, or the cast, but Coyotes is aiming for a specific, high-comedy/high-gore target and that means using a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor from the likes of other horror comedies The Re-Animator (1985) and Army of Darkness (1992). The repeated use of the freeze-frames starts to be expected, yet, where the script infuses other bits of comedy, often at the expense of a character’s safety or life, are frequently unpredictable. Even if we see one aspect coming into play, such as Lily asking Scott about the tree outside their home before the storm arrives, the places where we don’t are what make the most impact and bring the absolute pain. Where Coyotes applies its cheekiness, when it leans into the absolute ridiculousness of this conceit, the film fires on all its cylinders: dripping blood, dropping carnage, and leaving sinew strewn about. However, when things slow down a tad, when the cortisol drops, there’s space to notice when realism contradicts what we see, which upsets the horror/comedy balance, resulting in pulling the audience out of the experience.
Justin Long as Scott in COYOTES. Photo courtesy of AURA Entertainment.
Interestingly, though, this aspect ties neatly into the emotional journey of the central family as Scott realizes, through this experience, just how distant he’s become to his family in pursuit of the ideal. Stories like these tap into that notion of what directives the generation that includes Scott were given regarding success as a moral prerogative and item of (potential) personal failing. Even as the situation grows dire and hope is scarce, Scott continues to do what he can to protect his wife and daughter, each time aiming for perfect when good would do just as well. What gets lost when we always aim for perfect or, in the case of this script, what we may lose, is far more valuable than the capitalistic goals we think matter. In truth, if you have to choose between your family and your belongings, the answer should be simple and clear regarding what is replaceable and what’s not. In that same vein, the call-to-arms that Scott must dig deep to answer, that all the human characters, regardless of their affinity toward animals, must answer as the choices become increasingly dire is: what would you do to protect the ones you love? Some might say that you’d be willing to run-down anyone who might cause them harm and, within a horror comedy, that’d be permissible, even expected.
Given the task at-hand and the different tones that must be struck, Coyotes is good because it doesn’t seek perfection. It seeks to make the movie that it is, one in which it can make you laugh one moment, then squirm, and then jump. It’s a film whose use of CG effects and practical gags create disquiet and unease, as well as quite a bit of giggling (context-dependent, of course). There’s a precision in terms of the story it wants to tell and the cast understands who’s grounded, who’s elevated, and when, if necessary, to trade places. This allows for the whole of Coyotes to feel anchored whether it is at its most ridiculous and silly or at its most sincere. By eschewing perfection, it becomes a howling good time with sweet underpinning.
Screening during Fantastic Fest 2025.
In theaters October 3rd, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Fantastic Fest Coyotes webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
Share this:
Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
Leave a Reply