A Dog's Way Home: Behind The Scenes

Most people are familiar with a movie called "A Dog's Way Home" For those of you who've never heard of it, here's a quick synopsis.

As a puppy, Bella finds her way into the arms of Lucas, a young man who gives her a good home. When Bella becomes separated from Lucas, she soon finds herself on an epic 400-mile journey to reunite with her beloved owner. Along the way, the lost but spirited dog touches the lives of an orphaned mountain lion, a down-on-his-luck veteran and some friendly strangers who happen to cross her path.

If you haven't seen the film, then I suggest that you don't watch the trailer. Since the trailer spoils the ending, which made a lot of people very angry. Bryce Dallas Howard voices Bella, a 2 year old mutt who gets mistaken for a Pitbull. And there's some really cheesy 2010s music in the film, including some of the blandest songs you'll ever hear such as "Brighter than the sun" and "Together". I haven't seen the movie in quite a long time.

Here's when things become really interesting: When the movie was first released, there was a behind the scenes video that was uploaded to YouTube but then taken down 4 hours later. Mostly because of the violent and upsetting content present in the video. I only saw about 5 seconds of it, because it strangely appeared as a YouTube ad. Keep in mind that this was during a time where YouTube started to show 2 ads before a video, so I saw an ad for AAMI insurance first, then I saw what seemed to be a shaky camera. Not too shaky, but shaky enough to make me dizzy. I started to get sick, so I skipped the video and went on with my day.

I've been on a desperate hunt for the footage for an incredibly long time. Until I realised that my cousin was actually an intern for Sony Pictures Entertainment back in 2019. He worked on various shitty movies such as The Angry Birds Movie 2, MIB International, and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl. He was also the cameraman for movies like A Dog's Purpose and Spider Man, Far from Home. I got on a Zoom interview with him and asked him various questions about the film. When I asked him if he could supply any BTS (Behind the scenes) Footage, he got extremely nervous and panicky. His smile quickly faded into a terrified frown. I asked him what his problem was, and he whispered:

"Don't mention it, don't mention it, don't mention it" over and over again like a broken record. He then abruptly hung up the zoom call. I was weirded out, to say the least. Why was my cousin so frightened? Was he trying to tell me something? I got an email from him approximately 10 minutes later.

Here's what the email said:

"If you want to see this footage, just go ahead. Your stupidity has finally made me lose it! I know you're very naive and all, but....I...I just can't....I just can't talk right now. I swear to god, if you tell ANYONE about this video, there'll be serious legal consequences involving you and me. So beware!"

There was a video attached to the email which went by the title of "Adogswayhomebts.FLV" and the thumbnail of the video was just a black screen, nothing else, just a black screen. There was also an image near the right of the screen. The image was very low quality and pixelated, so I had to use my phone to get a good glimpse of it.

It was a dog on a farm standing next to a grave. I found that rather strange, but considering that most things don't really scare me, I wasn't affected by it in the slightest. I clicked on the video file, ordered some KFC (A BBQ Bacon stacker box with a large Pepsi and large fries to be exact) and proceeded to watch the video.

Turns out that my cousin wasn't lying at all.

It started off with the same shaky camera footage as before. In the background, I could hear some people discussing the film while the actor for Bella (Shelby) was whimpering for some reason. I thought that this was during the making of the final scene in the film. The whimpering got progressively louder, as if the dog was in serious pain. I could hear another man (Who was presumably the actor for Lucas) repeatedly telling the innocent dog to shut up.

The camera eventually stopped shaking and it panned over to the dog, who was still whimpering in pain. My anxiety started to worsen the more I heard that sound. Because I absolutely despise the sound of a dog whimpering! It makes me scared and extremely nervous, especially since my dog (Stewart) whimpers whenever he hears a very loud noise or he feels that something horrible is going to happen.

It cut to the staff filming the ending part to the film. Bella was limping uncontrollably! Her acting was much more dramatic this time, and someone was laughing in the background. It sounded a LOT like my cousin, who was the executive producer for the film. A little girl was slowly walking the dog over to the set, and I could see her distressed face. Similar to the one my cousin had when I asked him about the video. I could tell that she couldn't stand seeing a dog in pain. My cousin told the girl to smile, but the girl refused to pull any form of happy face. His voice got angrier and angrier. However, before I could see him snap, the video cut to black.

It then cut to a familiar looking house, it looked like they were filming the very first scene which featured Lucas' mum. The dog seemed happier this time and so did the staff. My cousin showed the script to both of the actors and they looked very confused. Again, my cousin started to get angry. And when I say "angry", I mean so exasperated that you could actually hear the pitch of his voice change. The screen got all pixelated before cutting to black again.

The next part actually made me sick to my stomach. There were a bunch of real cougars attacking Bella, and the staff were just watching in amusement. The horrendous and nerve wrecking sounds of cougars growling and dogs wailing rung through my ears. I assumed that this was the scene where Bella is cornered by the cougars and "Big Kitten" saves the day. But this didn't happen, no no no. The ferocious giant cats tore and scratched at the dog's flesh as gargantuan eagles flew down and proceeded to poke at her eyes. The staff just stared at the horrific scene, not doing anything.

The last piece of footage actually made me want to gag, vomit, close my eyes, scream, and even cry with fear. Big Kitten was feasting on Bella's dead body. The camera zoomed into the poor dog's corpse and you could see various scars and bruises on her back and legs. What's even worse is that the scene took place in a forest, and only the sound of birds chirping could be faintly heard. Big Kitten dragged her body into a cave, and the sound of cougars growling could be heard near the end of the video.

The video ended with a memoriam:

"In Loving Memory of Bella"

And a copyright disclaimer.

"© Copyright 2011 Columbia Pictures. All rights reserved."

Which was strange, considering that the movie wasn't even an idea until 2017. Despite my confusion, I was now petrified and really wanted to find the source of the film. I desperately tried to call Sony Pictures, but I got an answering machine every time.

Whoever made this sick video is hopefully in prison now. I can't get the final image out of my head! I now have constant nightmares and since I've watched this video, I've changed a lot. People used to know me as a fun, hilarious person but now my friends won't even talk to me.

And I HATE to finish this story! I really do! There's so much more I need to talk about. Unfortunately, that can't be covered today. But I have one more thing to say before I leave for good:

Have you ever been scared by something so little?