COYOTE CALL – Full-length feature screenplay (thriller/horror)

Logline/Synopsis

A dysfunctional suburban family and their reluctant house guests are cut off from the outside world during a blizzard. Surrounded by a roving band of coyotes, the real danger is actually inside the house, where craven lust and murky secrets soon have the humans at each other's throats.

On a frosty winter’s morning, the Prescott family bustle about their daily routine. Jessica prepares lunch for her 11-year-old son, Toby, who sits watching a documentary about coyotes on his iPad. The boy is obsessed with coyotes.

Clips from this coyote documentary will be inserted throughout the movie.

The self-important man of the house, Darwin, takes the family dog out for a walk. At the bottom of the driveway, a coyote appears. Panicked, Darwin steps backwards, trips, falls, and badly sprains his ankle. The coyote is frightened away by the blast of a rifle, the bullet ripping through his ear. A neighbor, Brenda, appears, a grizzly outdoorswoman, brandishing a smoking gun. She helps Darwin back to the house.

Toby and Brenda clash about the nature of coyotes – she sees them as flea-bitten vermin, he sees them as noble and majestic, the heroes of Native American folklore.

Despite weather reports of an approaching blizzard, the Prescotts move ahead with their plans for a dinner party that evening. Their guests are an attractive, nouveau riche younger couple, Sean and Emily, both work colleagues at Darwin’s law firm.

Jessica suspects her husband of having an affair with Emily.

She is mistaken. He is actually having an affair with Sean.

Later that night, Brenda, out in the storm manically hunting coyotes, trips and falls unconscious on the Prescotts’ driveway. Sean and Jessica bring her inside and lay her down in the spare bedroom.

The blizzard becomes ferocious, toppling a large oak tree outside the house, which destroys Sean’s car and blocks the driveway.

No one is getting in or out—the guests must reluctantly stay the night.

It is reported that a local communications tower has been blown down – there is no local cell phone service…

… and then the power goes out, plunging the house into darkness.

As the coyotes outside get louder and closer, it’s actually the behavior of the adults inside the house that becomes increasingly wild, animalistic and deadly.

If you are interested in reading the full script, please contact me directly.