Movie Review: Good Boy

Sometimes a movie comes along with a gimmick that is so good it’s hard to believe it hasn’t been tried before, and Ben Leonberg’s feature directorial debut Good Boy is one such movie. In a year that has already seen Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp play with perspective to give us the excellent ghost story Presence, shown entirely through the ghost’s eyes, Leonberg and his co-screenwriter Alex Cannon also use a shift in viewpoint to upend the haunted house tale by focusing on a loyal dog, to great effect.

Todd (Shane Jensen) is recovering from a serious lung disease when he decides to leave city life behind and relocate with his dog Indy (Indy) to his late grandfather’s isolated and neglected cabin. His sister Vera (Arielle Friedman) is none-too-pleased about the decision due to his health issues, but he is determined to go and does so anyway.

The pair aren’t in the cabin long before Indy begins to sense eerie figures around the property. Todd of course is unable to see them and so waves off Indy’s behavior, but over the following days and nights the mysterious presences continue to distress the poor pup. Todd’s health also begins to take a turn for the worse, leading him to grow irritable with Indy, further isolating the canine and forcing him to contend with events on his own.

If you love dogs and can at least tolerate horror movies, you will probably love Good Boy. Indy comes off as a natural talent, delivering an often shockingly expressive performance that leaves one hoping he will receive the same amount of attention come Oscar time that Messi the dog from Anatomy of a Fall did. The human acting is a bit shakier, but this is so much Indy’s story that it doesn’t detract much, and everyone delivers well enough in the moments that truly matter.

Leonberg proves to be an adept horror storyteller, effectively generating suspense that doesn’t solely rely on our natural empathy for his lead. The special effects do sometimes give away the film’s low budget but are always at least serviceable and usually shot well enough to hide their flaws. Serving as his own DP (credited as Wade Grebnoel) he sets an eerie tone and captures some memorable scenes while keeping the story moving at a brisk pace.

I’m not going to tell you that Good Boy is a perfect movie, because it very much isn’t, but for a debut feature it is pretty well made and would likely be worth checking out even if the cast were entirely human. Making the lead a dog is a stroke of genius however, that elevates the material and pulls the audience in in a way that it probably wouldn’t have otherwise, playing on the myth that canines are better able to sense supernatural entities than humans and the idea that they will truly do anything to protect their beloved owners. Sweet, sad, tense, and engaging with some genuinely creepy moments and one of the greatest canine actors of all time, this will wind up being a Halloween favorite for a lot of people (and their furry friends). ★★★★