Editorials
Man’s Best Friend: The 10 Best and Most Heroic Survivor Dogs in Horror
Haley (Kaya Scoledario) and Dave (Barry Pepper) may have been fighting for their lives against a congregation of alligators and a Category 5 hurricane in this summer’s Crawl, but it was the fate of their dog Sugar that audiences were most concerned about. Luckily, Haley and Dave never forgot the loyal pup in the chaos, allowing Sugar to survive until the end.
But let’s face it: a dog’s loyalty to man often gets them killed in horror movies, and it’s a major bummer. It’s not just horror either; there’s a reason why doesthedogdie.com exists.
The furry little companions steal our hearts, and often the spotlight in film. The trusting eyes, the cute faces, and the boundless dedication to their human friends often make dogs into horror heroes. So, in honor of man’s best friend, we’re celebrating the best pups that horror has to offer for National Dog Day today.
A caveat: there are countless great dogs in horror, but this list is dedicated to the pups that were allowed – like in Crawl – to survive through the end credits. More of that, please.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil – Jangers
Tucker and Dale get all the attention for successfully thwarting the crazy college kids that decide to off themselves all over their property, but there’s one hillbilly that keeps his cool the entire time; Jangers. Jangers doesn’t even seem phased when lead college kid Chad threatens to shoot him. This calm pup is such a good boy, he deserves all the chili dogs.
A Boy and His Dog – Blood
Teenager Vic wanders the post-apocalyptic wasteland that was once the U.S., trying to survive its dangerous conditions. Luckily, he has his telepathic dog Blood to help him. Blood is the brains of the pair; Vic was orphaned young and has no concept of education or morality. But because he’s been gifted with telepathy and higher learning, Blood is unable to fend for himself. Thus, A Boy and His Dog is about one twisted codependent relationship, with Vic often committing horrible acts along their journey. It’s a refreshing update to make the dog the smarter one, and even better is that Vic gives his furry companion higher ranking than anyone else.
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan – Toby
Add one more reason to why Jason Voorhees is one of horror’s most iconic; he’s a dog lover. Or at least, we can assume he is. When final girl Rennie brings her Border Collie, Toby, along for the class trip to Manhattan, they get separated a few times in the pandemonium of Voorhees’ slaughter. But Border Collies are smart pups, and Voorhees only has human vengeance on his mind. So, Toby easily survives until the end of the movie.
The Amityville Horror – Harry
Often in horror, pets are the first to cue in that something is supernaturally amiss. Enter the Lutz family pet, Harry. Not only does Harry sense something off with the house, but he obsesses over the very source from which it seems to stem; a secret room in the basement. Harry even saves George from that secret room, dragging him out of the sludge. Luckily, George saves him right back, ensuring both Harry and the family successfully flee that house. In the 2005 remake, poor Harry becomes a heart-wrenching victim to illustrate how far under the house’s sway George has fallen. We much prefer the dog’s fate in the original film and novel.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) – Chips
Chips shows up about halfway through this remake, when he’s found having survived on his own in an underground garage. Eventually, the group figures out why; the zombies have zero interest in devouring a dog. They use Chips to deliver supplies to their isolated friend across the parking lot, though it leads to nail-biting disaster. Even still, knowing that the zombies aren’t interested in Chips means we can breathe a sigh of relief on his behalf. He survives through the end of the film, and when things look dicey for the survivors in a mid-credits scene, we know Chips will at least outlast them all.
The Silence of the Lambs – Precious
Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb might be a cold-hearted serial killer with a penchant for making skin suits, but at least he has a soft spot for his Bichon Frise, Precious. He’s beside himself when his latest victim, Catherine, has successfully lured Precious down into the well with her. Poor Precious might have broken a bone on her tumble down, but she outlives her owner. In the novel, one of the first responders to the scene winds up taking Precious home to his kids.
Gremlins – Barney
The irony in Gremlins is that it’s essentially a “boy and his dog” story that’s referring to Billy Peltzer and Gizmo, a Mogwai. But Billy already had a dog prior to receiving his new pet, and a good one, too. Poor Barney deserved better. Barney is a good judge of character, as evidenced by his reaction to the mean Mrs. Deagle or his warm reception of Gizmo, and he (along with Gizmo) knew the new Gremlins were bad from the start. Even when those Gremlins strung him up in Christmas lights, he remained a steadfast and loyal pup to the Peltzer family.
The Lost Boys – Nanook
A strong case could be made that Sam’s dog, Nanook, is the MVP vampire slayer of the movie. The good boy never leaves Sam’s side, at least not when he’s home, and he attacked older brother Michael for nearly giving in to his new vampiric thirst. That alone would be enough to earn Nanook a spot, but then he takes it a step further by killing one of the vampires- saving the Frog brothers in the process- during the third act. We all wanted a Nanook after seeing The Lost Boys.
The Hills Have Eyes – Beast
Whether you opt for Wes Craven’s 1977 original, or Alexandre Aja’s 2006 remake, Beast remains a champ either way. The Carter family began their journey with a pair of German Shepherds, Beauty and Beast, but the gentle Beauty was the first to fall at the hands of the mutant family. It’s a move Beast made sure the mutant family comes to regret. In the harrowing fight for survival, it’s Beast that’s the biggest asset as he viciously attacks enemies, mauling a couple mutants to death. Beast didn’t just successfully avenge his counterpart, but he helped the remaining Carter family members survive to the end credits. He’s not just a good boy, he’s the best.
Bad Moon – Thor
This werewolf tale is, essentially, a dog’s tale. Based on a novel that tells this story from the family pet’s perspective, the adaptation isn’t quite able to replicate that. But it does successfully prove what a hero Thor is to his human boy Brett and Brett’s mom Janet. After surviving a vicious werewolf attack in Nepal, Brett’s Uncle Ted returns to Seattle to settle down. Thor immediately knows what’s up with Uncle Ted, and spends the rest of the movie trying to protect his family, even through injuries and Ted’s successful framing of the pooch. Thor is the star of this story by far, and comes through for his family even when all odds are stacked against him. Give Thor all the treats.
Horror was thriving so well in the 1980s that movies like Pen Densham’s The Kiss (1988) would understandably get lost in the shuffle, only to then gain their fans later on in life. Even still, this one Canadian-American curio has had a more challenging time than others, as far as contemporary reevaluations go, which is very likely due to the movie’s limited availability—at least as of this write-up.
However, the scarceness of The Kiss, while a bit annoying, makes it like catnip for ‘80s horror completists everywhere. Hopefully, a lot of them will walk away satisfied after watching this hidden gem.
Even though The Kiss was intended as the first of several horror collaborations between Astral Pictures and TriStar, as well as the first feature produced by Densham, Richard B. Lewis and John Watson’s Trilogy Entertainment Group, it ended up being the only one produced from that former union. Once the movie was released, TriStar’s distribution jitters—they opted for a regional rollout—did the $6-million flick no favors. TriStar’s cold feet toward horror releases have been well noted, but The Kiss still did a tad better than Night of the Creeps (1986), another genre outing that flopped due to its regional opening.
Shot in Montreal, but set in Albany, New York, The Kiss—which was still called The Host just a few months before its October premiere—concerns an average middle-class family and their forthcoming situation. The uncanny problem in store for them was, in fact, set in motion some years earlier. As that hot and dusty flashback to the Belgian Congo shows, a familial curse was set upon the two Dunbar sisters well before Meredith Salenger’s teenage character was born.
Meredith Salenger, Nicholas Kilbertus and Mimi Kuzyk in The Kiss
The Kiss, which was based on a story by co-writer Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch) and penned by both Volk and Tom Ropelewski, has the outward appearance of The Stepfather (1987). This movie, though, is anything but a gender-flipped retread of that classic domestic disturber. For starters, The Kiss is far less grounded in reality—that much is clear from its unsettling opening scene. There, a trusting girl (Priscilla Mouzakiotis) is the victim of her own deceptive aunt (Céline Lomez); the movie’s titular act, and the story’s first shock, becomes the means of transferring an ancient evil from one host to another.
In the present day, Salenger’s role of Amy Halloran, a religious schoolgirl, is dealt a harsh blow in life once her mother, Hilary Halloran née Dunbar (Pamela Collyer), suddenly dies in a freak accident. But rather than a complete stranger sweeping the Halloran widower (Nicholas Kilbertus) off his feet some months later, Joanna Pacula’s character is that chosen temptress. Here, Pacula plays the grown-up version of the afflicted girl last seen in the movie’s opener. Since Amy’s mother is insistent about there being no reunion between estranged sisters, and she even contemplates buying a gun shortly before her tragic demise, it’s presumable that Aunt Felice poses a threat to her family.
The Kiss isn’t a movie ever too concerned about its own predictability. The audience is indeed often one step ahead of the story here, but also keep in mind how every one of those steps is loud. Take, for instance, the death of Amy’s mother; the Halloran matriarch goes out in garish, gruesome fashion, as a supernaturally commandeered truck sends Collyer’s character through a store window first, then leaves her one leg short. The directorial enthusiasm truly comes out in horrific moments such as these.
The Kiss is always sure to revel in its characters’ ills and misfortunes. So if the plot doesn’t impress, then its lurid parts should. Amy’s mother’s exit scene was proof of an eager, first-time horror director proving his worth. Then, bestie Heather (Sabrina Boudot) survives to tell the tale of a bizarre escalator mishap that, despite showing relatively less gore, spikes viewers’ empathy meter. The wilder bits of this movie, however, commence with that inevitable hookup between Felice and Amy’s bewitched father; their kitchen coitus is paralleled by Amy’s feverish classroom terror. The outcome there is a disquieting cross-cut of sex magic and a young woman’s menstrual onset plus hallucinations.
Sabrina Boudot in The Kiss
From foam appliances to bladders, that parade of special effects in The Kiss casts its own spell on the audience. Felice’s familiar, a visibly malevolent cat, was realized here with several models, some more articulate than others. Admittedly, the demon cat’s not as convincing as most of the effects here, but accepting that artifice, as opposed to fighting it, will make the whole experience way more enjoyable. As for the makeup used to manifest Felice’s inner villainy, it is more minimal and subtle than one might like; yet the work done to turn Pacula into an antithesis of herself is nonetheless compelling.
The otherworldly perils and dreadful goings-on wouldn’t work half as well as they do in The Kiss without the story’s contrast effect. Finding frights in picturesque, extremely ordinary settings was something that took off in the ‘80s, thanks to that sweeping shift to locales like the suburbs. And Amy’s home, a replica of a real Montreal suburban house, is the ideal battleground for any proper good-versus-evil story. It’s also prime real estate for this movie’s satanic panic-inspired horrors.
Because of their ostensibly similar plots, The Kiss has been compared to The Exorcist (1973). Except in Densham’s movie, the sinister, non-Christian entity targeting a teen girl lies within something less apparent and, perhaps, more devastating upon its exposure. To an outsider, Pacula’s Aunt Felice is too beautiful and unobjectionable to ever suspect of being a monster. More suspicious is how quickly she rips into the fabric of the Halloran home. Felice’s mere presence upsets the “texture of family life,” according to the director.
The demon cat in The Kiss
Taking out Amy’s mother and best friend, and distracting her father, would suggest The Kiss is playing by a different set of rules. It is initially leaving its adolescent target unsupported in a rather grim scenario. In contrast, though, this story offers up a surrogate parent who does her best to fill in the holes of Amy’s eroding home life. Mimi Kuzyk does good work as that family friend and doctor, Brenda, who guides the lost child without also steering her in any one direction; she is naturally skeptical of Amy’s accusations until it’s almost too late to do anything about them. So although The Kiss does an admirable job of undoing the main character’s support system, it never leaves her without a lifeline. This dark movie, in spite of everything that’s transpired, doesn’t deprive itself of light and hope.
The Kiss is a potent mélange of familiar ideas. If not for the director’s surprise flair for horror, though, the movie would have been less effective. What a shame that Pen Densham didn’t continue with the genre. As for Joanna Pacula, she is, too, owed credit as the wicked vixen opposite Meredith Salenger’s pitiable Amy; she never fails to be unsettling in her role. Pacula makes Aunt Felice a sexy yet intimidating character.
For horror that steadily doles out madness and menace, while also delivering a flashy and ghastly conclusion, The Kiss is certain to please. Yes, it’s cheesy all the way, but most favorably, everyone involved plays everything straight. That kind of commitment goes a long way with this movie.
The Kiss
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