COYOTE (2014)
COYOTE (2014)
Directed by Trevor Juenger
Review by Mario Dominick
2014 has proven to be a productive and busy year for many microbudget horror filmmakers with several new underground gore films and art house efforts seeing distribution. Among the many new flicks that have helped several filmmakers hit the ground running (including Scott Schirmer’s Found, Brian Williams’ Time to Kill, and Jeff Wedding’s A Measure of the Sin among others), another flick that has great potential to develop its own cult following once released is Trevor Juenger’s Coyote.
Coyote stars Bill Oberst Jr. as Bill, a struggling writer who helps his friend out with his moving business. Bill moves into a new home and is set on writing his memoirs. Bill doesn’t do much besides spend time at his typewriter and fish with his friend. When Bill isn’t doing that, he is plagued by extremely crazy delusions that fill his head with a wide variety of disturbing images. He has visions of ski-masked hooligans breaking into his home and killing him, rambles on about animals, talks about aliens watching over the planet before we developed the technology to go to the moon, and seems to believe at times that he is an animal himself. At one point he believes he’s a worm and while on a fishing trip with his friend he eats a worm out of a bait can. Bill soon gets a job at a local TV station that is broadcast home to a Home Shopping Network-style shopping show. While working at his new job, he meets Jesse (Victoria Mullen) who he soon develops an intimate relationship with. Bill’s delusions get more and more extreme as he has visions of himself transforming into different creatures (including a fly), wanders around wearing a coyote pelt, urinates in an empty beer bottle and drinks it, imagines his hunting knife coming out through his penis, and soon develops a rage that gives him a thirst for violence, leading to a gruesome and bloody conclusion.
Coyote is a surreal, gory, depraved, and outrageous masterpiece of indie horror. It has a very campy undertone with lots of extremely dark humor simmering underneath the insanity of the main character and the resulting madness. There’s some very Cronenbergian “body horror” touches noticeable along with some slight similarities to Jason Koch’s 7th Day with the approach to the angle of delving into a madman’s twisted mind.
Soon to be released on DVD by Wild Eye Releasing, Trevor Juenger’s Coyote is a definite must see that will look good sitting on the reference shelves of extreme cinema fans everywhere!
Keep your eyes on www.wildeyereleasing.com for a release date.
