Coyote Cage is now available in the U.S. on Digital from Indie Rights Movies.
Every once in a while you come across a film that piques the interest through a tangible, real-world lens. Such is the case for the crises faced by migrants South of the border, seeking safe harbor away from their former homes, and the imaginable (and in some cases, unimaginable) horrors that come with the risks of such a journey. That’s the stage being set in Michael Perez’s fourth feature, Coyote Cage, penned by Devin O’Leary and now streaming on Amazon Prime to rent or purchase.
What follows is an all-out survival thriller that often moves at a slow pace, but doesn’t wait too long before leaving a trail of bodies and raising the stakes a little more as it goes. That’s the ordeal soon left at the foot of Guero (Michael L. McNulty), a white “coyote” living and working in Mexico as he helps transport migrants to the border to cross over. His latest batch is a septet of eager wanderers: Dora (Juliana Philippi) and Maria (Aubrey Trujillo), sisters from Guatemala; Aurelia (Marila Lombrozo) and Marisol (Amy Choi), mother and daughter from Juarez; and loners Fonso (Valentin Mexico) and Raul (Pablo Correa), and Alicia (Mariah Padilla).
Before they know it, their quest is violently hampered by a pair of wily, self-imbued border patrol agents, resulting in a gruesome death that reduces the group to six. The incident results in a lessening of resources for the group during their harrowing trip. Making matters worse are Nomar and Javy (Carlos Enrique Almirante, Fernando Alvarez) the pair of brutal cartel henchmen controlling the area, and a mysterious armed mercenary in their wake. With time and opportunity dwindling with every second, it becomes clear their path to “the land of the free” will come at a price more costly than they’ve already paid.
Perez crafts a palpable thriller that builds its intensity in small, albeit shocking increments for much of its duration. Most of the story encompasses the trip our characters face, enduring much of their safari on foot while surviving on little food and water. Respite exchanges between our characters help supplant some of the more tedious moments at times, with nearly each character contributing a little nugget of their own to the story. This proves much more useful as the story progresses and we find our characters in life or death situations, barring at least one area of the film where a character just “disappears”
Central to this is Guero, mostly an outsider but can definitely speak the language some. The money is mostly good for what he does, but he’s mostly biding his time, often cautious of what his job entails while staying the course, keeping his head low, and his employers happy. It’s when things get upended that it takes a while for him to come out of his shell and muster enough strength to stare down the cartel.
The excitement picks up just a tad as the more atmospheric aspects of the story begin setting in. Correa’s character instantly becomes the lynchpin and the more predominant figure among the lot as their chances of survival increase, despite the thinning of the cast. Shooting deaths are requisite for most of the film while the more gorier moments of the film are saved for the latter half. Bodies storied in freezers, fingers are severed, one guy gets shot in the neck and one of our main villains ends up getting the business end of a mini-cutter up his back. It’s pretty fantastic.
Coyote Cage does end up sprinting a bit hastily to its conclusions which undercuts a great deal of its resonance. There isn’t a lot of time to take in the tragedy that’s unfolded for the film’s duration except a brisk montage of corpses at the end. More to the point, it’s understandable how some folks will feel about a white lead at the forefront of a largely Latinx casting framework, and so to each their own. Beyond that, the performances alone are worth praising the film’s watchability, and the fair entertainment Perez provides in his direction.
