Few images in horror sting as deeply as the limp body of a dog or a cat on screen. For decades, filmmakers have leaned on this trope to draw out the emotions in their audiences, treating the pet’s death as shorthand for grief, loss, or escalating stakes. But the overuse of animal death has morphed into lazy emotional manipulation , especially in modern prestige horror, where companies like A24 have made it a recurring theme. These moments don’t challenge audiences; they exploit their empathy , weaponizing our instinct to protect the innocent to substitute shock for real storytelling. The trope has become just another expected horror movie motif that has dulled the edges of the genre.

What’s most frustrating is that horror, as a genre, thrives when it destabilizes expectations. A

See Full Page