Random 'Man's Best Friend' Is A Charmingly Stupid '90s Horror Movi (14 items)

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  (#4) The Appeal Of This Film Lies In Watching Max Take Out Bad People

  Slasher films often get a bad rap for being "body count" movies where the villain takes out various unlikeable characters - and some horror movies definitely fit that mold. Man's Best Friend is one of them. While Max is certainly the monster, and Dr. Jarret is both co-protagonist and bad guy, almost all of Max's victims (with one or two exceptions) are characters we've been primed not to like.

  From a purse-snatching mugger to smug and unhelpful cops to an offensive junkyard owner, most people who encounter Max are jerks, either to him directly or to Lori. Even the postal worker, who probably gets worse than he deserves, seems to take some delight in macing Max. Meanwhile, Lori's boyfriend comes off as kind of whiny, even though he really doesn't do anything all that bad until after Max has already chewed through his brake lines.
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  (#8) There’s A Scene Of Forcible Dog-On-Dog Relations 

  One of the things that makes Man's Best Friend such an oddity is its tone, which often feels disjointed, even for a movie from 1993. The juxtaposition of horror and humor worked for some people, such as Jake Dee who, writing for Arrow in the Head, praised the film's "waggish sense of dark humor."

  Nowhere is this odd and often inappropriate humor more apparent than in a played-for-laughs scene where Max pursues and ultimately mates with the neighbor's unwilling Collie - a scene that pays off in the end with a brood of puppies, one of which looks just like Max. In case you weren't sure whether it was supposed to be funny, the scene is set to Paul Anka's 1960 hit "Puppy Love."
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  (#7) The Filmmakers Went To Great Lengths For The Dog Stunts

  There are a lot of stunts involving animals in this movie, and the Humane Society has an extensive breakdown of just how they were all safely accomplished, using everything from puppets to highly trained dogs to optical illusions.

  When Max is swallowing the cat, for example, the cat is actually being pulled backward into a puppet head by its handler. The scene of Max climbing the tree is accomplished with camera trickery and Max walking along a horizontal log - the difference in texture between the log and the actual tree is apparent in the film. When Max jumps over police cars near the film's climax, it's a combo of a platform jump and some fake cars.
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  (#2) The Opening Credits Play Over An Intense Montage Of Old-Timey Dog Pictures 

  Even before the film's cold open, we're treated to a montage of classical paintings featuring dogs - and sometimes other animals - that veer from normal to sinister as Joel Goldsmith's melodramatic score swells. Goldsmith later went on to compose the music for several of the Stargate TV series.

  By the time the credits end, however, the paintings have returned to "normal," and we close on an image of a little girl holding a puppy. This foreshadows not just the film's arc, but also its final scene.
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  (#5) Max Is An Impossible Genetic Crossbreed Of Various Animals 

  If you watched many horror movies about genetic engineering in the '90s, you'll know that back then, most horror filmmakers seemed to be pretty sure that you could just dump the DNA of all kinds of animals together and you'd get whatever aspect of that animal you wanted. Want something with the ability to change colors like a chameleon? Just throw some chameleon DNA in there.

  The film lists several of the animals that went into Max's DNA (including, yes, a chameleon) and rattles off some of the powers that this unlikely combo gives him, including the ability to climb with "jaguar-like agility," change colors to blend in with his background, and more. It is implied that he has the DNA of tigers and bears (oh my), as well as other exotic animals.

  Weirdly, Max pretty much only ever uses these strange abilities in isolated set pieces that have nothing to do with the main story, such as when he climbs a tree to chase a cat or when he changes colors to startle some animal control officers.
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  (#10) Max Pees Acid For Unknown Reasons

  On top of all the other abilities he has as a result of his genetic manipulation, Max also appears to have acidic urine. We see this the first time when he lifts his leg on a fire hydrant and the metal subsequently smokes and sizzles. Later, he uses this technique against Lori's boyfriend Perry, who we are led to dislike even though his worst decisions occur after Max tries to knock him off by chewing through his brake lines.

  Which animal Max is supposed to have gotten this particular trait from is never discussed.

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