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.
The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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