Originally premiering on March 10 at South by Southwest, “Good Boy” has been theatrically released in time for Halloween.
A horror film told through the point of view of director Ben Leonberg’s dog, “Good Boy,” follows Indy as he tries to remain courageous alongside his owner and best friend, Todd, played by Shane Jensen. Although the supernatural story elements don’t break any new ground, the new perspective of experiencing the events through Indy is exhilarating and tense.
Some creative choices in “Good Boy” were particularly effective, such as positioning the camera low to the ground for most shots and angling it to mimic Indy’s perspective. Whenever there was human dialogue, it was lightly muffled or masked by ambient sounds such as water, electrical humming or creaks from within the cabin.
Todd’s face is rarely shown — instead, shots are taken from other sides to conceal his face as his lung condition worsens throughout the week. Rather than the tropey foreshadowing of coughing, “Good Boy” is more defined by having Todd cough up blood in increasing amounts. The jump scares are minimal, eliciting hardly any strong reaction and barely scratching the surface of the supernatural elements that would be commonplace in most horror films.
The runtime was shockingly short, hovering at an hour and 13 minutes, and the credits provided a behind-the-scenes look at how Leonberg trained Indy. The movie started with a brisk pace in the first half but shifted gears back and forth far too much, creating a disconnect and general boredom. What had a high ceiling potential of being interesting quickly became fatiguing as the story failed to do anything truly daring. Even though “Good Boy” had the advantage of an offbeat premise, the lack of exploring it is the most unfortunate part of the film.
One striking decision was how an old television was utilized throughout the story. Todd flips back and forth between home movies of his grandfather to old television shows that his grandfather used to watch on the television set. It’s an intriguing effort that boosts the overall dread in the film by inserting interactions between Todd’s grandfather and Indy. Since the grandfather also had a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever like Indy, the relationship with Todd is extended to his family members.
As Todd continues to review the home movies, there is a back-and-forth transposition of the events happening on film and within the cabin. When the tapes roll around to Todd’s grandfather, hints at Todd’s fate begin to become clearer. The decline of Todd’s condition begins to run parallel to his treatment of Indy, as well as the terrors that have begun to stalk them around the property. Even though Indy tries to be the best possible companion to Todd, the illness creates a physical divide between them that is heartbreaking and teases the finale.
“Good Boy” holds its highlights in the performance of Indy, an incredible feat to have an untrained dog be so emotive through eye contact, whimpers and barks. Indy is remarkably expressive, and the amazing amount of work that went into the production and direction shows. Another impressive feat is that the production team opted not to use any visual effects on Indy, which helped keep the budget to $750,000. The film has already grossed $6,000,000 at the box office. With the limited number of showings and the brief theatrical release window, this level of success indeed makes this movie a “Good Boy.”
Marvin Goines is a film/TV critic who has been writing reviews on various types of multimedia since 2021. His work can be found on websites such as ‘The Cosmic Circus’ and ‘Movies We Texted About.’
