As with most previous lists, I started with a preliminary list before turning to social media to crowd-source for more. I'm grateful to everyone who contributed suggestions.
What counts: cats, dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, rabbits, rats, etc.
C-D
S-T
What doesn't: chickens, cows, horses, pigs, and other farm animals.
What about invertebrates? Furry mammals preferred!
A-B
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Jonesy the cat (pictured above)
Alligator (Lewis Teague, 1980)
Bad Moon (Eric Red, 1996)
Thor, the German Shepherd
Baxter (Jérôme Boivin, 1989)
Baxter, the Bull Terrier
Ben (Phil Karlson, 1972)
Features Michael Jackson's most touching love song!
The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981)
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)
The lovebirds!
The Black Cat (Lucio Fulci, 1980)
Blade Trinity (David S. Goyer, 2004)
Pac-Man, the Pomeranian
Blood Glacier / Blutgletscher, Glazius (Marvin Kren, Austrian, 2013)
The Breed (Nicholas Mastandrea, 2006)
German Shepherds
The Cat (Lam Nai-Choi, 1982)
Cat's Eye (Lewis Teague, 1985)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
Crawl (Alexandre Aja, 2019)
Sugar, the terrier mix
Critters (Stephen Herek, 1986)
Cujo (Lewis Teague, 1983)
Cujo, the Saint Bernard; based on the 1981 Stephen King novel
The Curse of the Cat People (Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise, 1944)
Dawn of the Dead (Zack Snyder, 2004)
Chips, the Border Collie
Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (Curtis Harrington, 1978) [YouTube]
Lucky, a German Shepherd
Dogs (Burt Brinckerhoff, 1977)
E-G
Eye of the Cat (David Lowell Rich, 1969)
Frankenweenie (Tim Burton, animated, 2012)
Sparky, the Bull Terrier
The Gate (Tibor Takács, 1987)
Good Boy (Ben Leonberg, 2025)
Indy, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (pictured above right)
Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier, 2015)
Patrick Stewart's American Pit Bull Terriers
Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984)
H-I
The Hidden (Jack Sholder, 1987)
The Hills Have Eyes (Wes Craven, 1977)
The Hills Have Eyes (Alejandro Aja, remake, 2006)
German Shepherds Beauty and Beast
The Hills Have Eyes Part II (Wes Craven, 1985)
House / Hausu (Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, 1977)
Blanche, a White Persian cat
I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007)
Sam, the German Shepherd
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein, 2025)
The hamster!
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)
J-L
Jaws (Steven Spielberg)
Pippit, the Labrador Retriever
John Dies at the End (Don Coscarelli, 2012)
Bark Lee, the Golden Retriever mix
Kuroneko (Kaneto Shindo, 1968)
Lake Placid (Steve Miner, 1999)
Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
Weird CGI cat attack
Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, 1987)
Love and Monsters (Michael Matthews, 2020)
Boy, the Australian Kelpie
M-O
Man's Best Friend (John Lafia, 1993)
Max, the Tibetan Mastiff
The Meg (John Turteltaub, 2018)
Pippen, the Yorkshire Terrier
Monkey Shines (George Romero, 1988)
Ella (played by Boo), a capuchin monkey
The Nest (Terence H. Winkless, 1988)
Never Let Me Go (Alexandre Aja, 2024)
Koda, Australian Cattle Dog...maybe
Night of the Lepus (William F. Claxton, 1972)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (Jack Sholder, 1985)
Nope (Jordan Peele)
Gordy (Terry Notary via motion capture), the chimpanzee
Of Unknown Origin (George P. Cosmatos, 1983)
P-R
The Pack (Robert Clouse, 1977)
The Pack (Nick Robertson, not a remake, 2015)
Pet Sematary (Mary Lambert, original, 1989)
Pet Sematary (Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, remake, 2019)
Based on the 1983 Stephen King novel
The Plague Dogs (Martin Rosen, animated, 1982)
Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982)
Prey (Dan Trachtenberg, 2022)
Sarii (played by Coco), a period-appropriate Carolina dog
Primate (Johannes Roberts, 2025)
Ben (Miguel Torres Umba via motion capture), the chimpanzee
A Quiet Place: Day One (Michael Sarnoski, 2024)
Frodo that cat (played by Schnitzel and Nico)
Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon, 1985)
Rufus, the cat
Roar (Noell Marshall, 1981)
The Rule of Jenny Pen (James Ashcroft, 2024)
S-T
Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)
The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)
Precious, Buffalo Bill’s Bichon Frisé
Sleepwalkers (Mick Garris, 1992)
Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1978)
Albert, the blind pianist's German Shepherd
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (Ernest Dickerson, 1995)
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (John Harrison, 1990)
David Johansen fights a cat!
They Only Kill Their Masters (James Goldstone, 1972)
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
Jed, the Siberian Husky
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (Eli Craig, 2010)
U-Z
The Uncanny (Matthew Leutwyler, 2015)
The Uninvited (Thomas and Charles Guard, 2009)
The Voices (Marjane Satrapi, 2014)
When Evil Lurks (Demián Rugna, 2023)
Killer Mastiff
White God (Kornél Mundruczó, Hungarian, 2014)
The Wrath of Becky (Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote, 2023)
Willard (Daniel Mann, 1971)
Ben, the rat, pictured above left with Bruce Davison as Willard
The Crypticon Seattle panel Good Boy! (Pets in Horror) takes place on Sat, May 2, at 3pm with moderator Brien Gorham and panelists Todd Johnston, Eric Li, and me. Click here for tickets and more information.
Please see this list at the Scariest Things for more details about some of these films. Images from Bloody Disgusting (Sigourney Weaver with Jonesy in Alien), The Guardian (Indy in Good Boy), and the IMDb (Willard poster).
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