A Wilderness That Bites Back
There are survival thrillers — and then there’s Coyotes (2025). Directed by Anna Foerster, the film takes the familiar trope of being stranded in the wild and turns it into a deeply psychological, nerve-racking journey about guilt, grief, and what it truly means to survive.
Set in the desolate expanse of the American Southwest, Coyotes follows a group of travelers whose car breaks down on a remote desert highway. What begins as a simple road mishap quickly spirals into a nightmare as they are stalked — not only by nature and wild predators but by their own fractured relationships and inner demons.
Before the movie’s release, horror fans speculated whether Coyotes was a creature feature, a post-apocalyptic story, or even a modern Western. The mystery was part of its charm. Early teasers showed only a blood-red sunset, a cracked road, and the sound of distant howling — enough to send Reddit into theory overdrive.
The Story Beneath the Sand
The narrative unfolds with palpable tension. Lena (Ana de Armas) and Noah (Glen Powell), a couple on a troubled road trip intended to repair their relationship, pick up two hitchhikers, siblings, Jace (Jacob Elordi) and Mira (Cailee Spaeny) whose presence shifts the group’s dynamic from awkward to unsettling.
When their vehicle breaks down in the middle of nowhere, the strange sounds of the night become more ominous yet their hopes of remedying the situation are dashed by a fifty mile distance to the nearest town and lack of mobile phone reception. One of the group goes missing and the marks left on the vehicle are not from a wild animal but whatever abducted their companion.
However, Coyotes isn’t concerned with occult horror. It is the culmination of nature taking it’s final course. Each character winds tighter into the plot as flashbacks unfold providing the motivations of guilt, betrayal and other nefarious secrets which screamed wilder than the phantoms of the night.
It is the other creatures, the ones in the desert and not the coyotes, which are the true predators.
Ana de Armas provides Lena with a quiet ferocity. Armas describes Lena as a woman with a paradoxical balance of strength and vulnerability. The preparation for her role required as much dedication as the character’s relentless journey. In a Variety interview, she explains how most of the filming occurred in the desert and how she had little assistance from stunt doubles. “We were really out there,” she stated. “You could feel the sand cutting into your skin.” Such discomfort not only helped the actors engage with their performances but also captured the sense of exhaustion that was not faked.
Glen Powell has transitioned from lighter roles in Anyone But You and Top Gun: Maverick to performing in a darker role, which certainly surprised his audience. Powell’s character, Noah, struggles with the dichotomy of redemption and selfishness. Prior to filming, Powell’s training included time spent with survival experts which prepared him to learn how to start and control fires, navigate the stars, and other elements of survival, including water rationing.
Jacob Elordi, on the other hand, channels a deeper, more volatile energy as he plays Jace, whom fans have labeled “the wild card.” In interviews, he said that his experiences with fame and isolation gave him a lens into Jace’s detachment from society. “He’s someone who doesn’t know where he belongs — and that’s terrifying,” Elordi said.
Shooting in the Silence
The creative efforts for Coyotes were as intense as the story it conveys. Most of the film was shot in remote New Mexico locations far from any city lights. The crew encountered sandstorm, freezing night, and even wild coyotes.
Due to the minimalistic approach in the use of cinematoographic lights, Greig Fraser was able to use the moon and headlights of the oncoming cars to shape the visual tone of the scenes in the film. The approach realism to the film is astonishing, it captures the essence of every shadow and breath.
Emotional authenticity was a priority for Anna Foerster. During night shoots, she would allow actors to improvise to obtain a sense of real panic and desperation. Powell remembered a scene in which Armas, in near pitch darkness, screamed for help. It was a completely unscripted moment. “We all froze,” he recalled. “That scream wasn’t acting. It was just… real fear.”
As a chilling coincidence, the crew later learned that a pack of real coyotes had been surrounding the filming location during that scene — a coincidence that the crew described as “perfectly planned.”
Audience Anticipation and Speculation
For a survival thriller, Coyotes generated more than its fair share of hype. Online communities focused on horror and drama speculated whether the film would be a commentary on human depravity, or a straightforward creature feature. The film’s connection to The Descent universe was the focus of one popular theory. Another theory postulated that the “coyotes” were death and guilt, with each death of the character representing an emotional sin.
Audience speculation on the ending remained perplexing, as the final scene was a haunting wide shot of the desert at dawn, with the question implicit that, in the end, was survival really worth it.
Director Foerster did not clarify the ending, stating, “Some people die in the desert. Some people become part of it.”
Between Fear and Humanity
At its core, Coyotes (2025) isn’t about the beasts outside the car — it’s about the beasts inside us. The film’s most powerful moments aren’t the chase scenes or the screams but the quiet confessions whispered in the dark.
Ana de Armas and Glen Powell’s chemistry burns with realism, portraying not just lovers but two people unraveling in fear. Their relationship mirrors the film’s theme: how love and survival cannot always coexist.
Even the sound design — distant howls blending with heavy breathing — turns silence into a weapon. The score by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow (known for Annihilation) adds a haunting pulse that feels like a heartbeat fading under heat and hunger.
Audiences have described watching Coyotes as “uncomfortable but mesmerizing.” It’s not a film you walk out of easily. It lingers — like the echo of a cry lost to the desert wind.
The Wild Truth
Once Coyotes ends, it leaves the viewer emotionally adrift. Coyotes blurs the distinction between fear and freedom, and being hunted and being human. Its realism does not shout for attention; it whispers, scratches, and waits silenty in the dark.
With raw emotional core, haunting visuals and stunning performances, Coyotes (2025) stands as one of the most human survival stories in recent cinema. Most importantly, it depicts how the most terrible things are not what lurks outside, but what is trapped in the dark inside.
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