Dog Movies

Man’s Best Friend is a 1993 American horror movie starring Ally Sheedy and Lance Henriksen and directed by John Lafia.

Plot

Dr. Jarret (Lance Henriksen) genetically engineers a security system, which he calls Max, by taking a Tibetan Mastiff dog and genetically splicing in the genes of other animals to give it their traits. Max gets released from the lab by reporter Lori Tanner (Ally Sheedy), and adopts her as his new master. She doesn’t realize that Max is killing anyone around her he views as a threat to her or as competition for her affections. When he believes Tanner has betrayed him after Jarret finds them, she becomes his next target.

During the movie, Max demonstrated several abilities resulting from the genetic manipulation, including:

• Extremely acidic urine that was able to damage a fire hydrant
• Sufficient jaw strength to gnaw through a metal brake line
• Swallowing a cat whole after climbing a tree with retractable claws and catlike agility
• Ability to change his appearance to blend into his own surrounding environment much like chameleons are incorrectly believed to do
• Ability to run at speeds up to 60 miles per hour, and jump at abnormal heights for a dog
• Extraordinary intelligence for a dog. for example, Max conceals the body of a postal worker to protect himself.
• Dr. Jarret, Max’s sinister creator, claims the animal has enhanced sight, hearing, strength and stamina

Much of the movie uses tongue-in-cheek humor as a narrative device. For example, the romance music as Max woos (or possibly rapes) the local Lassie The Dog lookalike, and the children’s flippant reaction to Max’s ingestion of the local ginger cat. Several of Max’s victims are portrayed as cruel or inept.

The movie hints at a sequel when the progeny of the late-Max and “Lassie” contains one ill-tempered mutant.

Cultural references

This movie is also known to be shown on the cult film Friday. Being watched by John Witherspoon’s character, the scene shown is of a mailman being chased by the genetically-engineered dog.

Taglines

• He bit the hand that fed him… and then he ate the rest.
• His bark isn’t half as bad as his bite.
• Nature created him. Science perfected him. But no one could control him.
• BEWARE OF DOG.