I'm a dog enthusiast and one of the things I like to go on and on about is the idea (best expressed, IMO, in Nicholas Wade's Before the Dawn - alas, I missed the first part of this NATURE program) that being able to domesticate dogs was a huge evolutionary advantage for human beings. And who knew that The Hills Have Eyes illustrates this: the mutants eat dogs - they see them only as a food source, an attitude which comes back to bite them. Even though the mutants have the edge on the Carters in terms of home field advantage and savagery (their general willingness to use violence), the Carter's dog evens things out a bit.
Interesting: most of the memorable "horror movie dogs" are there (a) as victims (John Carpenter's The Thing) or (b) as symbols of man's barely domesticated bestial nature (see Tenebre or The Beyond), but here, one of the dogs at least, gets to play hero.
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