Pets play an important role in horror movies. Sometimes, furry comrades add scares by subverting their role as humanity's best friend. Other times, they help their human companions by fending off whatever evil forces are against them.
Regardless of their status, the animals on this list have become synonymous with horror movie pets. Whether you prefer dogs, cats, or even gremlins, there's at least one animal below for you.
Stephen King's iconic St. Bernard made his big-screen debut in Lewis Teague's movie, which is considered a cult classic. When people think of pets in horror movies, they think of Cujo.
The book and movie tell the straightforward story of a family dog who transforms into a rabid killing machine after being bitten on the nose by a bat. Without employing the supernatural, Cujo plays a movie monster inspired by vampires and zombies.
Who could forget the vampire Pomeranian in Blade: Trinity? Pac-Man is an adorable fluffball owned by wrestler Triple H's character Jarko Grimwood. Despite outward appearances, when Pac-Man opens his little mouth, a world of terror bursts forth.
Pac-Man possesses the same anatomical features as Reapers, a more powerful, ancient race of vampires. Like Reapers, Pac-Man's jaw opens in three parts, and instead of a tongue, a proboscis-like organ extends out from his throat. Also like Reapers, Pac-Mac's thirst for blood knows no bounds.
Aptly named Winston Churchill, the Creed family's British Shorthair is sadly killed by a car early in the original Pet Sematary. Their new neighbor Jud takes father Louis to an ancient burial ground deep in the woods, instructing him to bury the cat's remains there.
A few days later, Church returns to the Creed home, reanimated. While things seem normal at first, Church acts aggressively toward his human companions. Meanwhile, his body begins to decompose. Life slowly begins to unravel for the Creeds after this.
Masuka is the thread that keeps the narrative together in the stunning black-and-white Iranian vampire film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Director Ana Lily Amirpour places the cat in important scenes throughout the movie, a drifter who shadows the movements of the film's characters.
Masuka wanders from home to home, scene to scene, always curious. The fat cat even earned a special credit at the end of the movie.
In Wes Craven's urban horror film The People Under the Stairs, Prince is a formidable, muscular Rottweiler owned by the Robesons, a sadomasochist couple and slumlords in Los Angeles who also kidnap children and keep them in the walls of their large home.
After a neighborhood boy named Fool breaks into the Robeson house, he hatches a plan to free the children. "Daddy" Robeson releases Prince, who dons a large spiked collar, into the walls in order to stop Fool.
Precious is the Bichon Frise that keeps Buffalo Bill company in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs. Choosing such an innocuous-looking and toy-like breed of dog is no mistake here; Precious's benign appearance makes the horror unfolding around her all the more terrible.
The camera often gazes up at Precious from the perspective of Catherine Martin, a woman Bill kidnaps and keeps at the bottom of a dry well in his basement.
Jonesy the orange space cat may be the most beloved animal in all of science fiction. Ellen Ripley's pet is tasked with curbing rodent populations on board the Nostromo, and he soon becomes a guard against the growing Xenomorph population on board.
With Ripley, Jonesy escapes the Nostromo in a shuttle. An alien makes it on board with them, but Ripley is able to flush it out. She and her feline friend make it out of the first saga alive.
John Carpenter's 1982 film about a parasitic lifeform that attacks a group of Antarctic researchers features some of the most gruesome body horror scenes in the genre. The creature infiltrates the group by assuming the form of a runaway sled dog.
Once kenneled with the other dogs, the parasite spreads, turning the canines into a massive, deformed entity known as Kennel Thing.
Gremlins is a holiday horror-comedy that stars a lovable creature named Gizmo, purchased by a man named Randall at a Chinatown antique shop for his son. Known as a mogwai, taking care of Gizmo involves three simple rules: don't expose him to light, don't expose him to water, and never let him eat after midnight.
Randall gives Gizmo to his son Billy, who quickly breaks the rules. Soon, Gizmo is joined by a whole legion of evil mogwai who wreak havoc on the town.
Dario Argento's Phenomena stars a young Jennifer Connelly and an aged Donald Pleasance. Connelly plays a teen named Jennifer Corvino who attends a Swiss boarding school and possesses a psychic connection to insects. While alienating, this ability allows her to track down a serial killer murdering her fellow students.
Pleasance plays entomologist John McGregor, and Inga is his dedicated pet chimpanzee. After McGregor is murdered, Inga teams up with Jennifer to take out the killer once and for all.
