13 Best Horror Movies Starring Cats and Dogs for Your Spooky Season Binging

Looking for the perfect horror movies to watch this Halloween? Any spooky season celebration would be incomplete without a creepy movie or two, and some of the wildest scary movies center around animal villains. But as a horror fan and dog lover who’s seen Jaws one too many times, I began to wonder how many in the genre have been made just about dogs and cats — those adorable familiars who sit on our feet, sleep in our beds, and patiently watch us all day long, as if waiting for… something.

As I began to tally up some of the best scary movies featuring dogs and cats, or at least my favorites in this furry, freaky genre, it quickly became clear that domestic-animal horror has been a popular fixation for decades. This goes way deeper than Cujo (though, yes, that terrifying Saint Bernard is obviously on this list). We’re talking cat- conspiracy theories, vampire dogs, and a vengeful kitty who gets payback on her mistress’s murderers. Here, for your perusal, are the top 13 horror movies about dogs and cats.

The best horror movies about dogs

Cujo (1983)

Let’s get this one out of the way right now. It takes a lot of work to make a doofy breed like a Saint Bernard look menacing, but Cujo traumatized an entire generation of children in the ’80s by doing just that. After being bitten by a bat, Cujo goes rabid and terrorizes a mother and her son, who are stranded thanks to a stalled car. Between the simplicity of the story and Dee Wallace’s perfectly pitched performance as Donna Trenton, this one’s an easy sell at most movie nights. And in terms of sheer ferocity, Cujo ranks as one of cinema’s most formidable beasts. Thank goodness the Beethoven franchise came along just a few years later to salvage what was left of Saint Bernards’ cuddly reputation. 

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

This was the mystery that started it all for Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, who went on to play Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in over a dozen more films — and it also happens to be one of the greatest dog-horror stories of all time. Based on the Sherlock book of the same title by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the story follows Holmes and Watson as they investigate a supposedly demonic hound who’s been killing off members of the Baskerville line. Naturally, all is not quite what it seems, and by the end, Holmes outsmarts the real (human) villain. The Hound of the Baskervilles has been adapted a few times over the years, but for my money, the 1939 version is still the best (and most suspenseful).

White God (2014)

This Hungarian horror-drama, about an uprising of street dogs led by a stray named Hagen, won the Prize Un Certain Regard at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Hagen’s revolutionary journey begins when he befriends a 13-year-old girl named Lili (Zsófia Psotta), whose father Daniel (Sándor Zsótér) would rather buy her a purebred dog than pay a “mongrel fee” to keep Hagen around.

Daniel eventually abandons Hagen and drives away — a move that sets Hagen on a terrible, terrifying path from nearly getting murdered, to being sold into a dog fighting ring, to landing in the pound. When Hagen escapes, he leads his brethren on a rampage to exact revenge on humankind — that is, until Lili finds him and reminds him that not all humans are heartless. This one might not count as a horror movie in some people’s books, but for anyone who loves dogs, be warned that Hagen’s struggles are plenty gruesome.  

Dracula’s Dog, aka Zoltan Hound of Dracula (1977)

Have you ever wished movie studios would make more origin stories about supernatural villains’... pets? Well, have I got a movie for you. Before you ask, Dracula’s Dog is not, strictly speaking, a good movie, but it is a great one if you like your spooky movies on the (way) sillier side. Our story begins when Romanian soldiers are blowing stuff up for no reason and accidentally uncover Dracula’s tomb. Whoops.

Of course, the guy entrusted with guarding the tomb un-stakes a dead body, and unleashes Dracula(’s dog) on the world, where he eventually creates even more vampire-dogs. Like so many unhelpful films before and after it, I’m guessing this movie did Dobermans’ reputation zero favors.

Baxter (1989)

Leave it to the French to make a genuinely good arthouse dog-horror movie with voiceover narration. Fair warning, this one is very dark and will disturb anyone who can’t stand to watch animals get hurt (aka anyone reading this list), but it’s among the most unique and fascinating dog movies ever made. Directed by Jérôme Boivin, the film is based on Ken Greenhall’s 1977 novel Hell Hound and unfolds from the perspective of Baxter, a violent white Bull Terrier who, more than anything, wants to be understood. Unfortunately, his quest for a worthy companion leads him down an increasingly bleak path — one that will ultimately backfire in the most devastating way possible. 

Bad Moon (1996)

An underrated entry in the werewolf movie canon, the family dog is the star of this one, too. Based on the 1994 novel Thor by Wayne Smith, Bad Moon follows a photo journalist named Ted (Michael Paré), who moves to live near his sister, Janet (Mariel Hemingway) and his nephew Brett (Mason Gamble) after a strange animal attack cuts his work trip to Nepal short. Spoiler alert: He’s a werewolf now.

Perhaps because the book that inspired it unfolds from the perspective of its canine protagonist, Bad Moon makes Thor the center of the story. Although hokey at times, the film’s visual effects, and especially its werewolf design, are a cut above most werewolf fare, with the exception of the unbeatable flick Ginger Snaps. Long story short, it’s a howling good time. (Sorry.)

The best horror movies about cats

Pet Sematary (1989)

This one might not be about the Creed family cat, Church, but his death (and, more importantly, his re-animation in an ancient burial ground) are the inciting incident for all the trouble ahead. Based on another Stephen King novel, Pet Sematary is all about why messing with the forces of nature, of life and death, is always a terrible idea. Dale Midkiff plays Louis Creed, who brings the family cat back to life to avoid telling his daughter that he got hit by a truck. But then, when his son dies, he tries the same thing despite numerous warnings from neighbors — and things deteriorate from there. One of King’s most brutal tales, this one’s as haunting as they come.

The Uncanny (1977)

Considering how utterly ridiculous this cat-conspiracy movie is, its casting choices are actually kind of miraculous. Hammer horror star Peter Cushing hams it up as Wilbur Gray, a writer who’s convinced that cats are “the Devil in disguise,” and in this anthology movie, he tells his publisher (played by the late Paramount powerhouse Ray Milland) three stories to convince him that cats are actually man’s most formidable supernatural foe, all hellbent on keeping us subordinate. (Let’s be honest — that theory’s probably not entirely off-base.)

House (1977)

This creepy-kooky Japanese horror is one of those movies that’s best seen with little explanation, but the gist is this: A teenage girl and six of her friends go to stay with her aunt at her quaint country house, and one by one, they get murdered… by the house. At the center of all this is a Persian cat named Blanche (called Shiro, which means white, in Japanese), who watches many of the girls’ deaths with a strange glow in her eye. She’s so prominent that a warped version of her portrait made the movie poster. The movie itself might not be too scary, but stare into that rabid face long enough, and I swear you’ll see the devil himself. 

Cat People (1942)

In this metaphorical flick, Simone Simon plays a Serbian fashion illustrator who’s convinced that physical intimacy will turn her into a panther. Director Jacques Tourneur builds a tense, noirish atmosphere and sets up some solid horror moments for the time, largely by keeping the scares off-screen. That alone sets Cat People apart from the monster movies of its time. This movie might not be about cats, but it’s good enough to merit bending the rules.

The Black Cat (1941)

This one’s another Basil Rathbone entry, but in this case, he’s not playing Sherlock Holmes. Instead, he’s Montague Hartley — patriarch of a callous family waiting out the death of a wealthy old “cat lady” named Henrietta Winslow so that they can inherit all her riches. (I put “cat lady” in quotation marks because it’s a rudely pejorative term for women who prefer the company of cats over men, which, frankly, is understandable given what many men are like.)

Henrietta’s got a lot of cats, but apart from a few scenes, we don’t see very much of them. (Also, fair warning, one of them dies.) As greedy as Montague and his family might be, Henrietta’s no peach, either; the only reason she has the titular black cat is because her groundskeeper (played by Dracula himself, Bela Lugosi) disobeyed her orders to kill him as a kitten. The cat plays a pivotal part in the ending, as they always should.

The Shadow of the Cat (1961)

After witnessing the murder of her pet parent, Ella Venable, a tabby cat named Tabitha is out for revenge against everyone who conspired to kill her. Ella’s killers seem to know something’s up, and they try their damndest to catch and kill Tabby, but she’s simply too smart for them. You can tell just by looking at her from scene to scene that Tabitha was not played by one cat but several. But when it comes to cats, you know what they say — the more the merrier. Besides, can you think of any Halloween activity more delightful than watching a cat methodically Home Alone her would-be killers? Because I truly cannot. 

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

In the 1960s, director Roger Corman directed eight films inspired by the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, and The Tomb of Ligeia was both the last of them and one of the best. Vincent Price starred in all of the films except 1962’s The Premature Burial. Here, he plays Verden Fell — a widower who soon falls for a new woman, Lady Rowena Trevanion (Elizabeth Shepherd), only to be haunted by his late wife, Ligeia, in the form of a meddlesome black cat. As so often happens when film animals act as a manifestation of human characters’ grief and guilt, this cat does not have a happy ending, but the Gothic atmosphere and a typically excellent performance by Price are enough to redeem the film’s brutal ending.