The Pet Doesn't Die in this Movie Where Everyone Else Suffers Gruesome Fates

Don't worry, you'll only see humans killed in my movies.

Created in Canva

There's been a lot of buzz across social media regarding people saying they won't see my newest film, Skeletons in the Mirror, because the trailer featured animals that everyone assumed would die. A petition is currently circulating to halt the release of the movie due to this fabrication. 

Let me dispel the rumors. No animal will be harmed in this film. 

Believe me; there will be moments where your heart will race as Flamingo (named for the rescue dog who lost a leg before coming to this obviously haunted suburban home) wanders down the hall toward a door creaking open inch by inch. But, just when you're about to turn off the movie, what luck! Here comes the babysitter to have her tongue torn out by the malevolent spirit. There's gonna be a little bit of blood on Flamingo's fur to emphasize how violent this killing is, but let us be clear: none of that blood belongs to the dog.

I've really been careful to align my horror fan's love of gore with their inexplicable squeamishness with the mere mention that a puppy got jump scared. I'm not sure why that is, but I really can't get an avalanche of hate mail like I did when a parrot was "killed" in my first movie. Lesson learned. 

In my second movie, Sprinkles (a stunning Maine Coon) is fine, even after the teens opened a portal to Hell with a Ouija Board. Teen #1 had her head chopped off by a window. Cat walked by the corpse, nonplussed. Teen #2 got impaled by the spring coils on the bed. Cat sat on them for comic relief. Teen #3 got it the worst, being sucked into a tree and remaining alive but trapped, having their life force sucked away for (what is implied) many years. We very purposefully had the cat toy with a mouse nearby, ignoring the teen's pleas for help. All these cat scenes were for your benefit. So you can enjoy the deaths of humans without feeling like a monster for putting money into the pocket of a studio that would gleefully kill a pet.

Movie 3? There were three hamsters, two rats, one parakeet, and a golden retriever. The pets accompanied a family of seven as they moved into an old house left to them by their eccentric uncle, who claimed he could bring back the dead. It turns out he could, but at a cost, which the family had to pay. Do you know who didn't pay the literal blood tax? The animals. I left them alone even as a ghost dragged a 7-year-old into a well and a 14-year-old experienced what had to be an excruciating end after encountering something in the basement. It's weird how killing kids is OK for you, but when my fellow director had one hamster eaten by a monster in his film, you boycotted the movie. 

This is why, I swear, the animals are in my horror movies to add suspense and show the humans who are going die are pet lovers. Just like you! So maybe you'll care a little bit if they end up shoved into a woodchopper by a serial killer.