Call of the Coyote is exactly the dust-caked Western you expect

If you’re looking for a high-octane reboot or something with a bit of modern polish, steer clear. This isn't that. But if you have a soft spot for grainy, black-and-white desert chases where the dialogue is sparse and the hats are giant, you might find something to like here. People who hate older, low-budget B-movies will probably be checking their watches within the first five minutes. 🌵

The whole thing feels like it was filmed on a shoestring budget in the middle of a particularly hot afternoon. There’s a scene where our hero is riding across the plains, and you can practically hear the heat waves radiating off the celluloid. It’s not fancy, but it’s honest work.

The Setup

It’s the usual deal. A gold mine, a dead dad, and a bunch of bandits who look like they bought their outfits at the same thrift store. The little girl spends a lot of time looking worried, which, honestly, I would be too if I was stuck in a movie like this.

The pacing is all over the place. Sometimes things move so fast you miss a line of dialogue, and then suddenly we’re sitting in silence for a solid minute while someone checks a saddle. It feels less like a structured narrative and more like a collection of scenes held together by sheer willpower and a lot of grit. Reminds me a bit of the sparse, rugged feel in Hawk of the Hills, though maybe a little less refined.

There's a moment where a bandit gets cornered in a canyon, and the actor clearly forgets his lines for a second. He just stands there, jaw slightly open, looking at the camera. They kept it in. I kind of love that. It’s the small, messy bits that make a movie feel like it was actually made by humans.

• The horses look like they’d rather be anywhere else.
• The bad guys are comically bad at hiding behind rocks.
• The music is just one lone piano player working very hard.

Is it great? No. Does it need to be? Probably not. It’s a relic of a time when you could just throw a guy in a dusty shirt on a horse and call it a day. It has a certain charm, like watching The Racing Fool, where the fun is mostly in seeing how they pull off the stunts with almost nothing to work with.

I found myself wondering if they ever actually finished filming that one scene in the mine. It just… ends. One minute there’s tension, the next, we’re back on the open road. It’s a bit jarring, but that’s the deal with these old ones. You take the good, you take the weird, and you ignore the rest. 🤠