We have all experienced the creepy in a pet who knows something you can’t; the eerie sensation that comes when you see a dog Barks in the middle of the night at an empty wall, stare at nothing or wander in a hurry to hunt something that seems invisible. It’s scary enough to witness in real life, but add some haunting horror images – like Ben Leonbergs “Good boy“Goes in great selection-and it becomes a basis for one of this year’s scary films, albeit one that also acts as an emotional and touching tribute to the emotional bond between people and their four-legged friends.
“Good Boy” has a simple concept that hides a laborious and inventive independent production. The filmDirector, co -author (with Alex Cannon), Kinematographer and producer, Leonberg spent three years with his wife and producer partner Kari Fischer Coaching his own adorable retriever IndyTurn him into one of the most emotional actors of his generation – regardless of species.
Indy stars like, yes, indy, a very good boy whose human Todd . Todd is moving up all this, unconsciously about the screaming obvious “horror movie waiting to happen” vibe. You know who knows father directly, clocks the ghostly eyes that look back on him from the darkness of the night, the shady figure that creeps through the corner of the house and the ominous sounds that come from the basement? Why it’s indy, of course.
It is easy to attribute the success of “Good Boy” to the power of its dog star, but the movie refuses to make Indy feel like a cheap gimmick. If something, it is a very well implemented, as the relatively simple act of replacing a mute human character in the middle of a haunted house story with a dog also makes the most common and predictable of scares recently effective. After all, the audience is immediately skeptical of horror movies with dogs in them (to the point where there is An entire website Dedicated to warn dog lovers if you die in a movie). Since Indy has no knowledge of what is happening in the house, nor no awareness of what a ghost house is even in the first place, his reactions are scary and more tragic than a human being. Similarly, the prerequisite of the fact that Indy is still under Todd’s command is strengthened and cannot just leave the house at the first sign of terror; He is a prisoner of his owner’s poor decision -making.
Kinematographer Wade Grebnoel holds the camera at eye level with Indy and uses its point of view to show how the dog sees things. Todd, the neighbor, even the strange revelations are simply muted because of their height, which helps Indy’s experience but also makes Indy’s recognition of Todd’s voice all the more emotional. To create tension, much of the film is just indy and leaning on his head in curiosity while looking at distance, immediately followed by a shot of empty space, which lets the imagination become wild. The sound design also deserves enormous credit for how scary and influencing “good boy” is, not only in the case of the bizarre and scary sounds around the house, but also in how it isolate – or even creates – the sounds that Indy makes throughout the movie.
Not because Indy’s performance requires any real reinforcement, as the title of Leonberg’s debut submits sets how much of a good boy its star really is. His fixed dark eyes and disk ears convey a wide range of emotions that sell the horror at hand as clearly as they formulate the deep and unbreakable band between Indy and Todd. In fact, “Good Boy” uses its supernatural undertones to seed a supernatural genre story with a simple allegory about a boy and his dog.
You can draw your own conclusions about the nature of the strange things that happen in the house – dogs can smell things we cannot, not only drugs, but also death itself – but no one denies one thing, which is that Indy hard loves Todd and will go to hell and back for him. This review will not ruin the fate of Poochen, but be sure that “good boy” not just leaves you fear of Indy’s life, it also scares you to think about what it must be for a dog to fight with the mortality itself. The real dog may have no idea what was happening in the set, or that he was at a set to begin with, but his performance is all the more influence on how well Leonberg’s film can take advantage of that confusion to something too related to the people who are watching.
Rating: A-
“Good Boy” premiered at SXSW 2025. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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