Top 10 Dangerous Dog Films

You'd be excused for thinking that there would have to be a snarling canine in a movie named Dobermann. So, even though there aren't actually any paw prints on Jan Kounen's crime classic, which has just been re-released in cinemas, it still got us thinking about dangerous dogs on screen.

The vast majority of movie mutts are content to be the best friends of men, women and children alike. Some pal up with other breeds, while the odd one even clicks with a cat. If you don't believe us, check out Fletcher Markle's Disney adventure, The Incredible Journey (1963).

Since the silent days of Strongheart and Rin Tin Tin (whose reported win in the inaugural Best Actor stakes led to animals being barred from Oscar nomination), dogs have always shown their mettle. One of the biggest stars in Hollywood made their debut in Fred M. Wilcox's Lassie Come Home (1943) and Collies with a nose for trouble have continued to delight audiences young and old right the way through to Charles Sturridge's Lassie (2005).

Indeed, until the 1970s, dogs were almost invariably shown in a favourable light on film. There were exceptions, most notably when barking from the street triggers a flashback for Rod Steiger in Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker (1964), which brings back chilling memories of the snarling guard dogs at the concentration camp where his wife had perished. Such scenes have since become soberingly familiar in numerous films about the Holocaust and the Second World War and continue to remind us of the twisted way in which the Nazis exploited the trust of animals with an instinct to serve and obey.

But, while these dogs were trained to be brutal, others on screen have become bestial or rabid by (un) natural means. It doesn't always make for pleasant viewing to see noble creatures suffering. However, there's a grim fascination to watching Nature spiral out of control.

The Biggest, Baddest Dog of Them All

The Hound of the Baskervilles was first sighted in the pages of The Strand Magazine between August 1901 and April 1902. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published the story in book form later that year, noting that the events took place on Dartmoor two years before Sherlock Holmes had supposedly met his end in 'The Final Problem', which had been written eight years earlier. Ultimately, Conan Doyle would claim that Holmes had faked his own death at the Reichenbach Falls, but the writer seems to have been inspired to resurrect Baker Street's premier consulting detective after having witnessed so much suffering in South Africa, where he had volunteered in a field hospital during the Second Boer War.

The impetus for the tale of a family curse and a monstrous beast seems to have come from the legend surrounding Richard Cabell, a 17th-century Devonian squire who was supposed to have murdered his wife and sold his soul to the Devil. On the night he was laid in his tomb (which can still be seen in Buckfastleigh), a phantom pack of his beloved hunting hounds could be heard howling across Dartmoor. But there was nothing supernatural about the creature that took Holmes and Dr Watson to Devon in order to protect Sir Henry Baskerville, the new heir to the estate on the edge of the Grimpen Mire.

There have been over 20 film and television adaptations of Conan Doyle's most popular tome. Scripted by Richard Oswald (who would direct the last silent version in 1929) and directed by Rudolf Meinert, the first was Der Hund von Baskerville (1914), which stars Alwin Neuss as Holmes and was so popular that it spawned five sequels. It was long believed to have been lost, but a copy was found in a Russian archive. Indeed, the first four versions of the story were made in Germany and it was 1921 before prolific Brit Maurice Elvey got round to making The Hound of the Baskervilles, with Conan Doyle favourite Ellie Norwood as Holmes and Hubert Ellis as Watson.

It's disappointing that nobody has plucked this landmark picture from the archives and released it on disc. But Britain has a shocking record when it comes to celebrating its cinematic heritage, hence the fact it's impossible to see the first sound incarnation of the story, Gareth Gundrey's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932), with Robert Rendel in the deerstalker.

By the time Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce joined forces in Hollywood for Sidney Lanfield in 1939, Europe was on the verge of war. Two decades would pass before Hammer took up the tale, with Peter Cushing and André Morell swapping 221B for Baskerville Hall in order to safeguard Christopher Lee. Terence Fisher's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) was the first colour variation, but it wasn't Cushing's last visit to Devon, as he skulked around the moor in disguise while Nigel Stock kept an eye on things at the big house in Hugh Leonard's two-part telling in the BBC's Sherlock Holmes series (1964-68).

After another British screen stalwart, Stewart Granger, had cracked the case in a 1972 Universal teleplay, former Andy Warhol acolyte Paul Morrissey decided to put a comic spin on the story in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978). His Holmes and Watson were Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, while Kenneth Williams played Sir Henry, alongside guest turns by Terry-Thomas, Denholm Elliott, Irene Handl, Jessie Matthews and Spike Milligan. It's not exactly nerve-shredding and has a dreadful reputation among critics. But what do they know? Click now and let Cinema Paradiso do the rest.

Italian and Indian versions had emerged before Igor Maslennikov directed the second Soviet rendition, Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1981). Vasily Livonov and Vitaly Solomin make a durable Holmes and Watson. But the fascination of what is the last big-screen adaptation to date lies in the casting as Sir Henry of Nikita Mihalkov, who would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for Burnt By the Sun (1994), which is available to rent from Cinema Paradiso, along with its underrated sequel, Burnt By the Sun 2: Exodus and Citadel (2011).

Frustratingly, it's not possible to see Tom Baker in Peter Duguid's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982) or hear Peter O'Toole voicing Holmes in the Australian animation, Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville Curse (1983). But Cinema Paradiso members can admire the outstanding performances of Ian Richardson and Jeremy Brett, as they respectively tackle the demonic canine in Douglas Hickox's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) and the 1988 episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which some aficionados insist presents the finest small-screen interpretation of Conan Doyle's oeuvre.

Canada tossed its hat into the ring with Rodney Gibbons's Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of The Baskervilles (2000), which dispatched Matt Frewer and Kenneth Welsh to Devon to assist anxious heir, Jason London. An Australian also took up the mantle, when Richard Roxburgh's Holmes joined Ian Hart's Watson in David Attwood's The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002), which broke new ground by creating the critter from a mix of computer-generated imagery and animatronic models.

Since then, the first anime version has appeared, as well as a Ukrainian variation about a killer cat! However, we recommend you stick to the tried and trusted, as Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman sally forth in a 2012 episode of Sherlock (2010-17), while Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu combine forces as a latterday Holmes and Watson in 'Hounded', a 2016 episode of Elementary (2012-19).

Off the Leash

As we mentioned above, dogs were presented in a noble light during the Golden Age of Hollywood. There was the odd scamp like Skippy, the Wire Fox Terrier who played Asta opposite William Powell and Myrna Loy in W.S. Van Dyke's The Thin Man (1934), Mr Smith in tandem with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth (1937), and George alongside Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938). But properly menacing marauding mutts were fewer and further between.

They meant business when they did bear their teeth, however. Think of the pack of Great Danes that Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks) unleashes to hunt the yacht passengers he has lured on to his island in Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack's The Most Dangerous Game (1932). Filmed at night on the sets that Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper were using to make King Kong (1933), this adaptation of a Richard Connell story was remade as A Game of Death (1945). And, if you think the hounds look familiar, it's because director Robert Wise recycled the original footage, which featured a number of purebreeds borrowed from silent clown, Harold Lloyd.

Occasionally, however, Nature took a cruel twist, as was the case with the Black Mouth Cur in Disney's adaptation of Fred Gipson's popular childhood novel. The title role in Robert Stevenson's Old Yeller (1957) was taken by Spike, a strapping Mastador who also cropped up in Edward L. Cahn's The She-Creature (1956) and James B. Clark's A Dog of Flanders (1959). The studio had less success with the sequel, however, even though Savage Sam (1963), was directed by Norman Tokar, who proved he knew a thing or two about doggie movies with Big Red (1962), The Ugly Dachshund (1966) and Rascal (1969).

There was no question that the six Doberman Pinschers acquired by Byron Mabe are to be put to no good use in Byron Chudnow's The Doberman Gang (1972). After all, he names them after famous criminals: Dillinger, Bonnie, Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and Ma Barker. But neither this entertaining crime caper nor its sequels - The Daring Dobermans (1973), The Amazing Dobermans (1976) and Alex and the Doberman Gang (1980) - are available on disc, even though the middle one stars Fred Astaire!

Speaking of Dobermans - which brings us back to Jan Kounen's Dobermann (1997), which has Chick Ortega playing a sidekick named Pitbull alongside Vincent Cassell's title character - there are a number of features in which these powerful dogs play supporting roles. For example, geneticist Rock Hudson creates a large, angry dog during a reduced gestation period, having rescued a foetus from the pregnant Doberman he had run over in Ralph Nelson's Embryo (1976), while Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) tracks down Dr Josef Mengelea (Gregory Peck) to Paraguay, only to be surrounded by Dobermans in Franklin J. Schaffner's adaptation of Ira Levin's bestseller, The Boys From Brazil (1978).

On a lighter note, private eye Chevy Chase's efforts to search a suspect's house in Michael Ritchie's Fletch are made no easier by a Doberman that knows how to open doors and jump through windows, while Fred Ward discovers that the worst thing you can come across in a warehouse are three Dobermans with a game plan in Guy Hamilton's Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (both 1985). As part of his plot against detested spouse Bette Midler, Danny DeVito brings home a Doberman named Adolph to play with Midler's Toy Poodle, Muffy, in David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker's Ruthless People (1986).

A Doberman named Caligula isn't impressed with Robert Downey, Jr.'s chat-up lines in James Toback's The Pick-Up Artist, while Nicolas Cage chooses the wrong fence to jump over while fleeing from the cops and is grateful for the shortness of its tethering chain in Joel and Ethan Coen's Raising Arizona (both 1987). Steve Martin has problems with the Dobermans belonging to his daughter's in-laws in Charles Shyer's Father of the Bride (1991) and Father of the Bride II (1995), with the MacKenzie dogs refusing in the latter to budge off the bed they are sharing with Martin's wife, Diane Keaton.

But only Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) could hook a Doberman by the collar with a grappling hook and haul it beside him on to a warehouse roof in David Zucker's The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991). That said, clueless villains Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt are attacked by guard dogs after thinking they're safe inside a junkyard in Brian Levant's doggy favourite, Beethoven (1992).

You need good hand-eye co-ordination to bang the heads together of two Dobermans leaping for your throat. But it's all in a day's work for Arnold Schwarzenegger in James Cameron's True Lies (1994). Things are harder to handle for cop James Belushi and his Alsatian partner Jerry Lee when they are teamed with Sergeant Christine Tucci and her Doberman, Zeus, in Charles T. Kanganis's K-911 (1999). And spare a thought for Billy Crystal and the window cleaner who have uncomfortably close encounters with an over playful Doberman in Joe Roth's America's Sweethearts (2001).

Voiced by Edward James Olmos, El Diablo is a snarling fighting dog in Raja Gosnell's Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008), although the pack of vicious dogs that chase treasure hunter Asian Hawk through a maze also have an attitude problem in Jackie Chan's Chinese Zodiac (2010). Back in the 1930s, young Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) has to keep his wits about him in order to avoid Gare Montparnasse inspector Gustave Dasté (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his canny Doberman sidekick, Maximilian, in Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011).

Struggling to rebuild her fortune after being jailed for insider trading, Melissa McCarthy comes face to face with Peter Dinklage's Dobermans, when she breaks into his house in Ben Falcone's The Boss (2016). By contrast, Elisabeth Moss is intent on getting out of the house she shares with a controlling spouse in Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man (2020). However, her plan to take Zeus with her has be abandoned when she removes the Doberman's shock collar and he accidentally sets off a car alarm while passing through the garage.

Back in the realm of random angry dogs, George Kennedy gets roughed up by some junkyard guardians after he crashes into a department store in Michael Cimino's Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), which co-stars Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges as Kennedy's erstwhile partners in crime. At least these creatures are in a confined space. The strays on the loose in Penelope Spheeris's Suburbia (1983) are shot at by angry vigilantes after a toddler is savaged outside a Los Angeles phone box.

The creatures on the run fear for their lives in Martin Rosen's adaptation of Richard Adams's novel, The Plague Dogs. But, knowing nothing about bubonic plague, Rowf and Snitter aren't aware of the danger they pose to the public after escaping from a secret research centre. This animated treatise on animal cruelty was released the same year as Samuel Fuller's White Dog (both 1982), in which Paul Winfield is hired to deprogramme a White Shepherd that has been trained by its racist owner to attack Black people.

Despite his reputation, Chopper the junkyard dog turns out to have a bark worse than his bite in Stand By Me (1986), Rob Reiner's take on Stephen King's The Body. The same isn't true, however, of the dingo who carries off a newborn baby belonging to Michael (Sam Neill) and Lindy Chamberlain (an Oscar-nominated Meryl Streep) in Fred Schepisi's recreation of an infamous Australian legal case, A Cry in the Dark (1988).

There was no mention of a dog in Cormac McCarthy's source novel. But Joel and Ethan Coen created one of the most memorable scenes in No Country For Old Men (2007) by having Josh Brolin manage to get a shot off in time after being chased across a Texan river by a drug dealer's dogged hound. At least the end came swiftly, which can't be said for the attack dog muzzled by a flaming bucket in Marcus Dunstan's home invasion thriller, The Collector (2009).

In Yann Gozlan's fact-based chiller, Caged (2010), a room full of chained dogs in the lair of a Kosovan gang of body part smugglers triggers a childhood memory for volunteer medic Zoe Felix of her friend being mauled to death by a rampaging beast. And we stay in Eastern Europe for Kornél Mundruczó's White God (2014), which follows the efforts of a SharPei-Labrador cross named Hagen to reunite with its 13 year-old owner after it is slung out by her father and finds sanctuary with a pack of hounds roaming the outskirts of Budapest.

This potent allegory on intolerance finds echo in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012), as slave tracker Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) unleashes his dogs to savage escaped Mandingo fighter D'Artagnan (Ato Essandoh). And singer Callum Turner meets an equally grisly end when he has his throat ripped out by one of the many predatory dogs on the prowl in Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room (2015).

Another journey of hope ends in bloodshed for two of the Mexican migrants accompanying Gael García Bernal in Jonás Cuarón's Desierto (2015), when they are attacked by deranged patriot Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his murderously obedient Belgian Malinois. The same breed is seen in a more heroic light in Boaz Yakin's Max (2015), although not before the traumatised veteran of the war in Afghanistan is accused of going rogue and causing the death of new owner Josh Wiggins's soldier brother.

Matteo Garrone puts a spin on the dangerous mutt angle in Dogman (2018), as vengeful dog groomer Marcello Fonte locks rabid persecutor Edoardo Pesce in a dog cage in his basement after he fails to hand over his share in the proceeds of a robbery. However, Chad Stahelski restores the balance by having Sofia (Halle Berry) teach Berrada (Jerome Flynn) some manners after he shoots one of her Belgian Malinois companions (which was luckily wearing a bulletproof vest and gets to exact its own toothsome revenge) in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019).

Another Belgian Malinois steals the entire picture in Reid Carolin and Channing Tatum's Dog (2022), as a US Ranger (Tatum) and the war-traumatised and highly unpredictable Lulu have a series of scrapes while making their way across country to the funeral of her former owner.

Hounds From Hell

It often starts with a growl in the shadows. Then there's a rustle. And, before you know it, a sleek shape has leapt into the light and a helpless character is being chased by a baying, ravenous beast with only one thing on its fevered mind. As we've already seen, dangerous dogs can crop up in all sorts of movies. But, when it comes to horror, they're at their most menacing, marauding and murderous.

Exploiting the worst nightmare of cynophilists everywhere, Burt Brinckerhoff's Dogs set the tone for the killer canine sub-genre, as biology teacher David McCallum is baffled by the sudden ferocity of the pet population of a small university town. However, 1976 also brought us some of the most disconcerting dogs in screen history, as Damien Thorn (Harvey Spencer Stephens) is joined at his fifth birthday party in Richard Donner's The Omen by a Rottweiler that causes his nanny to hang herself. Later, a pack of the hounds chase his father, Robert (Gregory Pack), through a cemetery after he discovers the fate of his dead child. In John Moore's remake, The Omen (2006), the Hellhound is introduced into the household by the new nanny, Mrs Baylock (Mia Farrow), while Liev Schreiber plays the grieving father who barely escapes from the graveyard with a snapping pack at his heels.

Speaking of reboots, the Carter family doesn't take kindly to being victimised by the cannibals residing in a Nevada backwater in Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977). But it's Beast the German Shepherd who really gets his teeth into some gory avenging when his docile companion, Beauty, is senselessly slaughtered. Thus, when he learns that Pluto (Michael Berryman) has survived his initial onslaught, he returns for a bit of afters in Craven's The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985). The names are the same and much the same fate befalls the family in Alexandre Aja's The Hills Have Eyes (2006), although Martin Weisz dispensed with dogs altogether in The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007).

Not every horror dog has strayed to the dark side, however. Lester the German Shepherd tries to warn and protect Lindsey (Kyle Richards) that Michael Myers is on the loose in John Carpenter's Halloween, which is the subject of one of Cinema Paradiso's popular What to Watch Next articles. Such loyalty is less appealing, of course, when the pooch in question belongs to the Prince of Darkness and he considers Alsatians Samson and Annie fair game in Albert Band's Zoltan: Hound of Dracula (both 1978).

A guide dog named Dicky accompanies Emily (Cinzia Monreale) to the Seven Doors Hotel in New Orleans with a deadly warning about Room 36 for new owner Liza Merril (Catriona MacColl) in Lucio Fulci's The Beyond (1981). However, she finds herself on the receiving end of an unexpected attack after Dicky fends off an undead artist and his zombiefied cohorts. The nameless husky that finds a home at an Antarctic research station after being shot at by a Norwegian helicopter crew also seems to pose no threat in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). But this dignified creature - who is played by Jed, a wolfdog who also took the title role in Randal Kleiser's adaptation of Jack London's White Fang (1991) - has a secret that Cinema Paradiso wouldn't dream of divulging. You'll need to rent this classic remake of Christian Nyby's The Thing From Another World (1951) on either DVD, Blu-ray or 4K to see for yourself.

Another gentle creature changes beyond all recognition in Lewis Teague's Cujo (1983). Those who like to think of St Bernard's as wholesome, helpful creatures, such as Nana in Peter Pan (Clyde Geronimi, 1953) or the one who barks at Stan Laurel for trying to drink from its brandy barrel in Swiss Miss (John G. Blystone, 1938), should look away, as the fate inflicted by Stephen King and a rabid bat is not for the faint-hearted. Just ask Dee Wallace and bawling son Danny Pintauro, who is anything but consoled by the reassurance, 'it's just a doggy'.

Some might need to take cover behind the sofa during Claudio Fragasso's Monster Dog, as rocker Vince Raven (Alice Cooper) returns to his childhood home to shoot a music video and finds his entourage under attack from a ravenous creature that howls in the nearby woods. In one scene, you get to see why Vince really is a rock star. But the Terror Dogs on the loose in Ivan Reitman's Ghostbusters (both 1984) have hearts of stone, as Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) and Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) discover when they are respectively possessed by the statuesque Zuul and Vinz Clortho.

When it comes to transformations, few are better than that of Davie, the cuddly pet belonging to Anita Bartolucci, who begins to bear his teeth and snarl after licking the toxic bile dripping from an apartment ceiling in Lamberto Bava's Demons 2 (1986), which was produced by fellow giallo maestro, Dario Argento. How she could have done with more protective curs like Nanook the Alaskan Malamute belonging to Cory Haim and Thorn the White Shepherd owned by video store boss Edward Herrmann in Joel Schumacher's vampire romp, The Lost Boys (1987).

Amusingly named Jason from the Friday the 13th franchise, the dog in Renny Harlin's A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) causes chaos by cocking a leg. Having been pulled into a dream by Kristen (Tuesday Knight), whose hand he promptly bites, Jason pees against a gravestone and unleashes a jet of fire that revives Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Gore fans will know, of course, that there is a pooch in the Vorhees series, as Toby the Border Collie tries to console the aquaphobic Jensen Daggett during a voyage on the SS Lazarus in Rob Hedden's Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989).

Toby proves the doughty sort, but he's not quite as talented as Algonquin (aka Gonk), the poodle inherited by Cassandra Peterson in James Signorelli's comic horror, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988). Not only can Gonk (who is played by Binnie, who had also teamed with Steve Martin in Carl Reiner's The Man With Two Brains, 1983) transform into other animals, but she can also secrete books of spells and rock a punk makeover.

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Despite its themes of incarceration and cannibalism, there are as many laughs as shocks in Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs. Central to one comic set-piece is Prince the Rottweiler, who is chasing would-be coin thief Poindexter 'Fool' Williams (Brandon Adams) through the crawl space behind the walls of a sinister Los Angeles house when it plunges through a trap door and slides down a long chute into the kitchen. Although not dangerous in herself, Precious (the Bichon Frise who keeps some very bad company) takes a tumble of her own, when she falls into the pit in which Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) is holding Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith) in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (both 1991).

Darla, who played the yapping lap dog, can also be seen in Joe Dante's The 'Burbs (1989) and Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992). She's mostly a good dog and Zowie would cheerfully have gone on being the beloved pet of teenager Drew Gilbert (Jason McGuire) in Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary II (1992), a follow-up to her 1989 adaptation of Stephen King's Pet Semetary. However, the Akita Inu is shot dead by dad Gus (Clancy Brown) in a bout of mid-coital rage and the grieving Drew is left to bury him. As he chooses a spot in a former Mi'kmaq burial ground, however, it's a racing certainty that Zowie is going to make a red-eyed return. And that's when the mayhem starts.

Sadly, it's not currently possible to see how Max the Tibetan Mastiff exacts his revenge upon Lance Henricksen for performing animal experiments in John Lafia's Man's Best Friend (1993). But Cinema Paradiso users can see how Alice (Milla Jovovich) copes with the lab dogs who have been infected with the T-virus in the underground Hive facility owned by the Umbrella Corporation in Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil (2002). If this terrifying scene isn't enough, there are more canine encounters in Alexander Witt's Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), as Jill (Sienna Guillory) teaches the hounds in the kitchen how to stay, and Russell Mulcahy's Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), which Alice finds the zombie plague isn't confined to Raccoon City, as she fights off the pouncing beasts belonging to a band of Nevada desert desperadoes.

Rider Strong proves more fortunate than Jordan Ladd when they come across Dr Mambo, a German Shepherd suffering from a severe case of the red mist, in Eli Roth's Cabin Fever. Luckier still is Private Kevin McKidd in Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers (both 2002), as Sam the Border Collie turns out to be a very good dog, indeed. Not that the werewolves he fights to the death would agree.

But for a late change to James Gunn's script, Chips would have had to fight off a zombie dog in Zack Snyder's feature bow, Dawn of the Dead (2004). As it is, the stray still faces considerable danger when delivering supplies to the survivors in a shopping mall. And you have to feel sorry for Zipper in Wes Craven's Cursed (2005), as he senses that sibling owners Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg are changing, but winds up becoming a ravening weredog himself after he bites his master.

Controlled by a whistle, a pack of attack dogs pounce on Sean Pertwee when he is hit by crossbow bolts outside a remote prison facility in Michael J. Bassett's Wilderness. Another island provides the setting for Nicholas Mastandrea's The Breed (both 2006), as five friends on a cabin holiday fall foul of the genetically enhanced dogs that regard the spot as their private domain.

A post-apocalyptic New York provides the setting for Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend (2007), where sole survivor Richard Neville (Will Smith) is protected from three vicious hounds by his faithful German Shepherd, Samantha. Firefighter Jay Hernandez is glad to have a sledgehammer to hand when he is trapped in a lift with a Belgian Malinois in John Erick Dowdie's Quarantine (2008), a remake of Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's [•REC] (2007). However, a cleaver is the weapon of choice for masked vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) when he finds two dogs fighting over the bones of a kidnapped girl in Zack Snyder's Watchmen (2009).

The Collector (Randall Archer) pursues Arkin (Josh Stewart) with a pair of snarling mutts in the finale of Marcus Dunstan's The Collection. But it's entire town that comes after Victor Frankenstein after they blame his re-animated bull terrier, Sparky, for a small girl's disappearance in Tim Burton's Frankenweenie (both 2012).

Similarly feeling under threat from the local witch-hunters, Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange) decides she needs a guard dog in Season Three of American Horror Story: Coven (2013-14). And it sounds like the Wilson family need something similar to protect their Australian farmstead. But they have to find other means to fend off a pack of wild dogs in Nick Robertson's The Pack (2015). As Bob Hope might have said if he had been a dog lover, 'Fangs for the memory.'