Beware of Dog: My Favorite Dogs of Horror

1. Cujo — Cujo (1983)

There really isn’t anywhere else to start. When you think of dogs in horror movies, you think of Cujo.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dee Wallace, the lead actor from the film, at a local comic con and got to have a couple of delightful conversations with her about making the film. She told me that despite how frightening everything looks on screen, she never actually felt unsafe and had nothing but praise for her co-stars, both human and canine.

That makes the movie even more impressive to me. Cujo takes a lovable Saint Bernard and turns him into an absolutely terrifying presence, especially once Donna and Tad are trapped in that car with nowhere to go. You can practically feel the heat, exhaustion and desperation coming off the screen.

And poor Cujo isn’t really a villain. He’s a good dog who gets sick and becomes something he can’t control, which adds a layer of sadness that most movie monsters don’t have.

Still, if a giant, slobbering Saint Bernard covered in blood comes charging toward me? I’m staying in the car.

2. The Norwegian Dog — John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982)

From the moment The Thing begins, we know there’s something seriously wrong with this dog. A helicopter is chasing the poor thing across Antarctica while a man desperately tries to shoot it. The Americans at the research station understandably think, “Hey, let’s rescue the dog.”

Bad idea!!

What I love about the Norwegian dog is just how unsettling it is before anything happens. It wanders around the station quietly observing everyone. Then they put it in the kennel, and the other dogs immediately know something isn’t right.

And then all hell breaks loose. The kennel transformation is still one of the greatest practical-effects sequences in horror. Rob Bottin’s creature work is wet, disgusting, bizarre, and absolutely unforgettable. But I also have to give credit to the dog actor, Jed. That eerily calm performance does so much to sell the idea that something alien is hiding underneath.

The humans may take a while to figure out what’s happening, but the other dogs know immediately. Always trust the dogs.

3. Pete the Beagle — The Monster Squad (1987)

Okay, I’m biased on this one. The Monster Squad is one of my favorite movies. Period.

I was a weird kid, and this was my comfort movie. Whenever I had a cold or stomach flu, I’d ask my mom to put on The Monster Squad. Somehow, a bunch of kids battling Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon made everything better. And honestly, nothing has changed. If I’m stuck in bed with a nasty ick and feeling gross, there’s still a pretty good chance The Monster Squad is going on.

And, of course, the Monster Squad has a dog.

Pete is the wonderfully expressive little beagle who gets caught up in the battle against the monsters right along with everyone else. And Pete isn’t just along for the ride. When the Squad is battling the Mummy, Pete grabs hold of his bandages, unraveling the Mummy until there’s basically nothing left of him. Dracula has an army of classic Universal monsters, and one of them gets taken down by a beagle. Good boy, Pete.

Pete isn’t a killer dog or a supernatural creature. He’s simply part of the gang, and when his friends need him, he gets the job done. For a movie that has meant so much to me since I was a kid, there was no way he wasn’t making this list.

4. The Hellhound — The Omen (1976)

If Pete is firmly on Team Good, the Hellhound in The Omen is very clearly working for the other side.

The imposing Rottweiler doesn’t need rabies, mutations, or some gruesome transformation to be scary. He’s essentially Damien’s guardian, appearing when the Antichrist needs protection and becoming considerably less friendly when someone gets too close to the truth.

What I love about the Hellhound is how little the movie needs to do with him. He already looks intimidating. Put him in the shadows, have him stare silently at someone, and you immediately know that dog is there for a reason.

And unlike so many of the dogs on this list, there’s no question about whose side he’s on. This is not a misunderstood good boy.

Even Lucifer has pooches on his side!

5. Zowie — Pet Sematary Two (1992)

The first Pet Sematary taught us that burying your loved ones in an ancient burial ground is a spectacularly bad idea. Pet Sematary Two apparently decided we needed to learn the same lesson with a dog.

Zowie starts out as Drew’s loyal dog before he’s tragically shot by his cruel stepfather, Gus. So Drew and Jeff do what anyone who has learned absolutely nothing from the Creed family would do: they bury Zowie in the Micmac burial ground.

And Zowie comes back.

Except this is definitely not the same good boy who went into the ground. The resurrected Zowie is meaner, creepier and sporting some wonderfully unsettling glowing eyes. He also gets one of the movie’s most satisfying moments when he takes revenge on Gus.

Pet Sematary Two is weirder, nastier and considerably more over-the-top than its predecessor, and honestly, that’s part of why I have such a soft spot for it.

The rule remains simple:

Sometimes dead is better…especially when it has teeth.

6. E. Buzz — Poltergeist (1982)

After a couple of dogs who came back from the dead and one who works for the Antichrist, we need another genuinely good boy.

Meet E. Buzz.

The Freeling family’s Golden Retriever is exactly what you want from a family dog. He wanders around the house, begs for food, hangs out with the kids, and generally seems pretty happy with life. Unfortunately, his family happens to live in one of the worst pieces of real estate in horror history.

I love E. Buzz because he makes the Freelings feel like an actual family. While televisions are talking to Carol Anne, furniture is moving around by itself, and that horrible clown doll is waiting upstairs, E. Buzz is just there being a dog.

And unlike a lot of pets in horror movies, E. Buzz makes it out alive! That alone deserves celebrating.

He may not unravel a mummy or battle a vampire, but sometimes being a very good boy and surviving the haunted house is enough to earn your place on the list.

7. Scooby-Doo — Scooby-Doo (2002)

There was no way I could make a list of my favorite horror dogs and leave off the most famous monster-hunting dog of all time.

And yes, I’m talking specifically about the wonderfully ridiculous 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo. I loved this movie when it came out, and I still love it. A huge part of that is the cast. Matthew Lillard IS Shaggy. Sarah Michelle Gellar is a perfect Daphne, Freddie Prinze Jr. completely commits to Fred, and Linda Cardellini nails Velma. Everyone understood the assignment, and they play these cartoon characters just seriously enough to make the whole thing work.

Then there’s Scooby himself.

The Mystery Inc. gang heads to Spooky Island, where the usual guy-in-a-monster-mask routine gets tossed out the window, and they find themselves dealing with actual demons, stolen souls, and a supernatural plot. Scooby is terrified, food-motivated, maybe a little stoned, and would really prefer not to be involved in any of this. But when his friends need him, he comes through.

That’s why Scooby has worked for so long. He may be a coward, but when it counts, he’s a hero.

And surrounded by a cast that I still think was pretty much perfect, this version of Scooby absolutely earns his spot on my list.

Scooby-Dooby-Doo!

8. Barney — Gremlins (1984)

Barney is another good boy who finds himself living in a house where somebody has brought home a creature they absolutely should not have brought home.

The Peltzer family dog takes an immediate dislike to Gizmo’s much nastier offspring, Stripe, and as usual, the dog is right. Unfortunately for Barney, Stripe doesn’t appreciate being barked at and gets his revenge by stringing the poor dog up outside in Christmas lights.

Thankfully, Barney survives, because Gremlins may gleefully murder its way through Kingston Falls, but apparently even Joe Dante knew there are some lines you don’t cross.

I love Barney because he fits so perfectly into the slightly warped Norman Rockwell world of Gremlins. He’s the family dog in a cozy Christmas movie that just happens to be invaded by homicidal little monsters.

And once again, horror teaches us an important lesson: If your dog doesn’t like the strange creature you just brought home, listen to the damn dog.

9. Beast — The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Now this is a dog who understands the assignment.

The Carter family’s vacation through the desert goes spectacularly wrong when they become stranded and find themselves hunted by a violent family living in the hills. Thankfully, they brought their German Shepherds, Beauty and Beast, along for the trip.

Things do not go well for Beauty. But Beast? Beast wants revenge.

Rather than becoming another helpless animal in a horror movie, Beast goes on the offensive. He tracks the attackers through the hills, fights back, and proves himself to be considerably more capable of surviving this nightmare than several of the humans.

That’s why Beast has always stood out to me. Horror movies give us plenty of dogs who sense danger, bark at the monster, or try to protect their owners. Beast basically decides, “Fine. I’ll handle this myself.”

Good boy. Very, very good boy.

10. Spite — Trick ’r Treat (2007)

Poor Spite. There are no bad dogs, there are only bad owners, right?

Spite is Mr. Kreeg’s dog, and unfortunately for him, his owner has a pretty terrible relationship with Halloween. Kreeg uses Spite to help scare trick-or-treaters away and steal their candy, which is exactly the kind of behavior that gets Sam’s attention.

And if there’s one thing we know about Trick ’r Treat, it’s that Sam takes the rules of Halloween very seriously.

Spite’s fate happens off-screen, but the movie strongly implies that he doesn’t survive Sam’s visit to the house. Which feels particularly unfair because, really, Spite is just doing what his owner tells him to do.

That’s part of what makes him memorable to me. He’s another innocent dog who gets caught up in the terrible decisions of the humans around him. Spite deserved a better Halloween.

11. The Zombie Dobermans — Resident Evil (2002)

Some horror dogs are memorable characters. The Dobermans in Resident Evil are memorable because look at those damn things.

After being exposed to the T-virus, the Umbrella Corporation’s guard dogs become skinless, blood-covered zombie dogs with a serious appetite for anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. They’re one of those wonderfully gross images that immediately became associated with the Resident Evil movies.

They also give us one of Alice’s first great badass moments. Trapped in a room with the infected dogs, she runs up a wall and kicks one square in the head, making it very clear that Milla Jovovich’s Alice is not going to spend this movie helplessly running from monsters.

And while the effects may be very early-2000s, I still love these things. A pack of zombie Dobermans chasing you through the halls of an underground laboratory is exactly the kind of ridiculous horror-action spectacle I wanted from Resident Evil.

Good dogs? Absolutely not. Iconic horror dogs? You bet!

12. Zero — The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Okay, so The Nightmare Before Christmas might not exactly be a horror movie, but we’re in Halloween Town, and Zero is a ghost dog with a glowing jack-o’-lantern nose. He’s making the list.

Zero is Jack Skellington’s loyal companion, happily floating alongside him through graveyards, Christmas experiments, and whatever other questionable idea the Pumpkin King is pursuing that day. And despite being dead, he may be one of the sweetest dogs on this entire list.

Of course, Zero also gets his big Rudolph moment when Jack needs to guide his sleigh through the fog on Christmas Eve. That glowing pumpkin nose finally gets put to work, leading Jack and his skeletal reindeer into the night.

I’ve always loved Zero’s design. He’s so simple: a floating white sheet, long ears, tiny black eyes, and that little pumpkin nose. Yet somehow, he has tons of personality.

He’s spooky. He’s adorable. He can fly!

Zero is a very good dead boy!

13. Sparky — Frankenweenie (1984)

Tim Burton has put a lot of memorable pooches in his movies over the years. There’s Zero in The Nightmare Before Christmas, Scraps in Corpse Bride, and Burton would eventually return to Frankenweenie with his 2012 stop-motion feature. But his first movie dog is still, in my opinion, the bestest goodest boy of them all.

I’m talking about Sparky from the original 1984 live-action Frankenweenie.

Victor Frankenstein loves his dog. So when Sparky is tragically hit by a car, Victor does what any grieving kid with a love of science and access to electrical equipment would do: he brings his dog back from the dead.

What I love about Sparky is that resurrection doesn’t turn him evil. He comes back stitched together and looking like a miniature Universal Monster, but underneath all of that, he’s still Victor’s dog. He still loves his family. He still wants to play. He’s still Sparky.

And that’s why the original Frankenweenie has always worked so well for me. Beneath all the Frankenstein references and wonderfully weird Burton imagery is a very simple story about a kid who loves his dog so much that he refuses to say goodbye.

We started this list with a good boy who tragically became a monster, so it seems fitting to end with a little monster who never stopped being a very good boy.