Top 10 MVPs (Most Valuable Pups) in Horror

E. Buzz, named after Dan Aykroyd’s art critic character from SNL, is the Freeling family dog who sticks with them throughout the haunting of their house by evil spirits. This hungry boi is the first Freeling family member on screen, as he’s scarfing leftovers from discarded plates and vacuuming up scattered chips from the bed. E. Buzz shows a lot of love for his family when he grieves with Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) at the burial of her canary and helps track her down when she’s lost. About halfway through the film, E. Buzz leaves the house for his own safety with his best buddy Robbie (Oliver Robin), but returns for the final act, making a narrow escape with the Freeling family before the house implodes.

Beast is one of the only members of the Carter family to survive the brutal events of the Hills Have Eyes films. Although his pup partner Beauty is sadly killed, Beast is as loyal as can be and works side-by-side with the protagonist Doug (Martin Speer / Aaron Stanford) as he dispatches the mutants that mutilated their family. Beast even gets a few revenge-kills on his own, tracking and tearing apart a couple of the more disgusting antagonists.

RELATED: Horror Movie Mythos: The True Legend Behind ‘The Hills Have Eyes’

Expecting a pup to make it out of a creature feature alive is pretty unrealistic (looking at you, Jaws), and the same goes for disaster-style horror films (looking at you, too, I Am Legend), so Sugar automatically gets points for surviving through Crawl, the 2019 disaster/creature feature flick about murderous alligators during a hurricane. Not only does Sugar live, but throughout the movie, she routinely warns our protagonists when gator danger is afoot, and even plays decoy a couple times. I don’t think there’s anything more satisfying than watching Sugar being rescued along with her family.

As the proud owner of a Beagle, I have to say how happy I am that Pete from The Monster Squad either doesn’t actually bark like a Beagle, or they over-dubbed his bark. Pete belongs to the Squad’s youngest human member, Eugene (Michael Faustino), and is a member himself, as we see when he offers his paw to the huddle break. Pete is one of the most important members of the team, as he helps them fend off multiple monsters, like The Mummy and the Gillman. I’m still not sure how he gets in the treehouse, though…

Chips is one of the smartest pups on the list, as he maneuvers from the mall, through an entire army of zombies, to another building in order to deliver food and supplies in his cute backpack to a needy survivor. Chips befriends our main crew right off the bat as a stray and sticks with them to the very end. Although we don’t necessarily know the fate of the group at the end of the film, it’s probably safe to say that Chips made it out okay, being that the zombies didn’t seem concerned with him earlier in the film.

RELATED: 8 Horror Films to Kick Off Beach Season

Nanook is an incredibly protective and loyal pup to his best friend Sam (Corey Haim). So much so, that he immediately recognizes that Sam’s brother Michael (Jason Patric) is not himself, and bites him on the hand. Sam sees Nanook’s reaction to his brother, and quickly realizes Michael is a half-vampire. Nanook also helps the good guys win when he saves the Frog brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) by pushing one of the vampires into a bath of holy water and garlic.

Okay, okay… I know I said no dead dogs, but Sparky doesn’t count, because he’s brought back to life a few times, right? Sure, it’s sad that Sparky has to go the way of all living creatures at first, but the friendship gets to keep on keeping on after Victor brings him back to life with electricity. Sparky helps save day from all sorts of undead pets, and even sacrifices himself… only to be brought back to life once again by the townsfolk. See? Happy ending!

Rimshot is the best friend Ernest P. Worrell (Jim Varney) and has helped him through several of his adventures. In Ernest Scared Stupid, Rimshot comes to Ernest’s aid against the evil troll Trantor (Jonas Moscartolo) and is turned into a wooden dog doll while protecting Ernest. After Ernest promises to avenge his friend, he puts together a troll-fighting team, defeats the trolls, and restores Rimshot to his normal pup self.

RELATED: 10 Monsters We Love to Root For

Thor and his family move next door to a werewolf, which Thor immediately recognizes. The werewolf sees this as an opportunity to do some local killing, while framing Thor as the attacking animal (that can apparently hang bodies from trees). Thor has a couple close calls while defending his family multiple times, but is eventually carted off to the pound for crimes he didn’t commit. His buddy Brett (Mason Gamble) saves the day when he goes on a side mission to break Thor free. Thor knows danger is afoot and sprints home, attacking and killing the werewolf before he can do any more damage.

Fun Fact: This film is based on the 1994 novel Thor by Wayne Smith, and the story is told from the perspective of Thor.

Sorry, other dogs, but Boy is the one true MVP (Most Valuable Pup) on this list. Our hero Joel (Dylan O’Brien) meets Boy on his quest through an apocalyptic world filled with monsters, when Boy saves him from a giant mutant frog. Boy takes Joel to his home-base bus, where Boy clearly had another friend, but is grieving her death. The two set off together on a journey, and while frustrations of survival boil along the way, Joel and Boy’s bond becomes incredible, and both get lessons in each other’s boundaries, strengths, and weaknesses. At one point, Boy wants to abandon the quest for safer places, but he rejoins Joel just in time to save the day once again. What a good Boy.

RELATED: Original ‘Evil Dead’ Trilogy Sequel ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Coming to HBO Max

Feed My Coffee Addiction