Watching it again, I was wary because the guy was just telling the kid what he wanted to hear. But when the rest of the family showed up, it looked like they might be okay, but only because they have a dog. I doubt the dog would hang around with people who were cruel to others. Besides, they probably would have eaten the dog by now.

I don’t remember the dog being in the book, so the bleakest interpretation, that the people will turn out to be bad, might work for the book better than the film.