By Dave Hastings
It’s truly humbling to hear that when the initial trailer came out for Good Boy, the first question from a worried internet, was wanting to know whether our canine protagonist, Indy, would survive whatever horrors the story would try and inflict on its audiences as well as him. And while it is no spoiler now that he does indeed survive (trust me, as a dog dad myself, I was relieved too), it still doesn’t halt Good Boy in having the ability to not only ramp up the scares in its surprising, but effectively short runtime, but that it is equally still as heartbreaking to experience as well.
Horror is always at its best when acting as a haunting metaphor for the human experience, holding a mirror up to show us our sins within some grotesque form or character via the human eye, so to see these familiar elements now played out through the eyes of a loving and faithful dog such as Indy, allows filmmaker Ben Leonberg to reuse these cinematic techniques and pose the question, how would man’s best friend comprehend the supernatural if they were experiencing it? How different could those manifestations behave or look to them when compared to how humans have supposedly seen them in similar conditions?
This narrative theme and thread is a wonderful way thus for Leonberg to visualise his film, placing Indy front and centre of the frame, with the camera spending the majority of the time at his height as he listens to his frequently unseen or out of focus owner Todd on multiple phone conversations with his sister that help fill in the narrative blanks and give us more and more context. Furthermore, Leonberg has great fun following Indy around his new surroundings as he paces around at night either responding to strange noises he hears or as he stops and stares into the dark corners of a room, seemingly alerted to someone or something’s presence that our human eyes are oblivious to.
The scares are effective as well, as the horror hides in shadows and a wonderful atmospheric location wrapping around the house helping to sell the terror and the unnerving tale that is evolving, never allowing you to feel at peace alongside Indy, making us think something will jump out at us (which it sometimes does!), while forcing ours and Indy’s eyes to dart around the screen, looking for something or anything out of the ordinary in the dark spaces.
Does Good Boy reinvent the horror genre? Leonberg seemingly doesn’t appear interested in that, but this inevitably plays in his favour, instead allowing him to take all his craft, and as an alternative, focus on just telling a remarkably effective horror film that not only deals with the fear of what goes bump in the night, but additionally in the same vein, reaffirms the unbreakable bond between a devoted pet dog and his owner, highlighting how much they not only process loss, but how when their world is in threat of becoming a darker place, their resilience and love can be a virtuous force to be reckoned with against death and the supernatural.
While Good Boy doesn’t revolutionise the horror genre, it nevertheless stays very close to what has made it a champion of echoing the human experience through multiple metaphorical perspectives over the last century, just this time, framed through man’s best friend, and that is where Good Boy’s strength bounds through.
An outstanding and classic ghost story, all the more effective being viewed through the eyes of a loyal and devoted pet protagonist whose unwavering loyalty and devotion is ardently heightened as he protects those he loves against the forces of darkness.
Good Boy screened as part of Grimmfest 2025.
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