Studio: Decal Partners
Release Date: 11/25/2025
Rating: R
Film Grade: C-
The Story: Scott and Liv hunker down in their Hollywood house, along with daughter Chloe, as the combination of a power outage and a menacing pack of wild coyotes threaten their neighborhood.
My Take: Comedy horror films are a tricky animal. Too many laughs and you risk losing an edge. Too few and the audience may mistake the comedy for unintentional laughs. The latter is the case with this movie.
In some ways, it feels like a low budget version of the surprise hit Cocaine Bear from a few years ago. The script is populated by clueless caricatures of various stereotypes. Examples include a sociopathic pest control agent, a coked-up, whore monger neighbor and his vapid prostitute, and a superficial, self-indulgent social media babe. This could have been played for large laughs, but they’re all so over the top and hackneyed that the portrayals have no bite, and interesting opportunities are passed by. The threat could have been amped up by having the animals get into the cokeheads stash, similar to the aforementioned bear, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, there’s a contrived and ridiculous reason for their aggressive behavior that just adds another element of silliness onto the finale.
Scott and Liv are portrayed by real-life married couple Justin Long and Kate Bosworth. But unlike the performances of Dave Franco and Alison Brie in the recent Together, Long and Bosworth don’t display any particularly strong sense of chemistry. That’s in contrast to the interview shown as part of the extras, where you can tell that they’re married by their interactions. I’m going to attribute that to the script from a trio of writers. Home life is centered on Scott’s singular focus on completing his comic book in an attempt to add depth to the story, but it’s plotted in such a shallow manner that there isn’t much the actors can do to elevate it.
The other married pair in this production is director Colin Minihan, who cast his wife Brittany Allen, as the goofball hooker. It’s a role that feels tacked on for an element of outrageousness, but she’s saddled with throwaway lines meant to inject humor that just don’t score.
There are some fun aspects to the movie, such as using comic-book styled portraits to introduce characters, jiving with Scott’s artistic background. News stories and real-life footage is used to set up the story, reminding the audience that the threat may be just outside their own back doors. And urban legends are touched upon but never developed into something intriguing.
Visuals: Colors are deep and saturated, especially the many reds, and the picture has sharp, defining contrast. This ends up hurting the movie in and unexpected way. The coyotes look bad. The CGI looks like it could actually be AI generated, with good detail, but with lighting that looks out of place. They show up more frequently than one might expect, so their appearance is a distraction as your mind tries to reconcile the dramatic, but artificial looking shots. This is in contrast to the makeup effects, which are well done. There’s one particular shot of a victim that is completely unrealistic but looks fantastic.
Audio: The 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack is adequate, but not groundbreaking. There are some directional cues, but the movie could have benefited from an Atmos mix. Dialog is clear and intelligible.
Minihan tapped his wife to produce the movie’s score as well as act in it. It’s filled with harsh, brash notes adding to the frenzied moments.
Special Features: The featurette gets into the inspiration of the film, what attracted Long and Bosworth to the story, along with making-of footage.
- Behind the Scenes with the Makers
Final Verdict: This movie had real potential given the rise of roaming coyotes in urban areas. The commentary compares it to Jaws in that regard, but it’s far short of that mark. The characters aren’t very interesting and have to do stupid things to push the plot along. (Why is it so hard for people to shut doors in these movies?) Billed as a horror comedy, the jokes are too far apart and simplistic to add much to the story and the obviously fake coyotes rob it of tension.
If you’re interested in this one, lower your expectations, leave aside your critical thinking abilities, and try to get into the comedy part of the movie. Perhaps an adult beverage or two may be in order.
Disagreeable Dialog: “Can we not do movie night? It’s cringe.”
Warning: The trailer contains expletives:
My Review System:JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
Oppo BDP-93
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup
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