Editor’s Note: This Review was original published During the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Independent Film Company Opens “Good Boy” in Theaters Friday, October 3.
We’ve all experiences the creepiness of a pet sensing something you can’t; The eerie sensation that comes we did you see a dog barking in the middle of the Night at an empty wall, Staring at nothing, or Wandering off in a hurry to change that seers invisible. IT’S spooky Enough to Witness in Real Life, but Add in Some Haunting Horror Imagery – As Ben Leonberg’s “Good Boy” DOES IN GREAT SUPPLY – and it beComes a foundation for one of the year’s scariest movies, albeit one that also also tribute and moving and moving Emotional Bond Between People and Their Four-Legged Friends.
“Good boy” has a simple concept that hides a laborious and inventive Independent Production. The Film’s Director, Co-Writer (with Alex Cannon), Cinematographer, and Producer, Leonberg Spent Three with HIS WIFE and Producer Partner Kari Fischer Caaching Their Own Adorable Retriever Indy, Turning Him Into One of the Most Emotive Actors of His Genraration- Regardless of species.
Indy Stars As, Well, Indy, A Very Good Boy Whose Human, Todd (Shane Jensen), Relocates to His Grandfather’s Cabin Upper A Cancer Scare – Nevermind that the House is Creepy As All Hell, Has Long Been Abandoned (arielli froedman) Thod’s Grounds Are Haunted. Todd shrugs all of that off, oblivious to the house screamingly obvious “Horror Movie Waiting to Happen” vibe. You know who senses Danger Right Away, Clocking the Ghostly Eyes’ Back at Him from the Dark of Night, the Shadowy Figure Creeping Through the Corners of the House, and the Ominous Sounds Coming from the Basement? Why is the Indy, of Course.
It ‘easy to ascribe the success of “good boy” to the power of its canine star, but the film refuses to let Indy Feel like a cheap gimmick. If anyding, it’s a very well-considedered one, as the relatively Simple Act of Replacing A Dumb Human Character at the Center of a Haunted House with A Makes the Most Ordinary of Scares Newly Effective. After all, audiences are immediately skeptical of horror movies with dogs in say (to the point Where there A whole website Dedicated to warning dog Lovers if one dies in a movie). Because Indy has no knowledge of what is happy in the house, Nor any awareness of what a haunted house is in the first place, his reaction are scarier and more tragic than those of a human. Likewise, the premise is strethened by the fact that indy is still under todd’s command, and can’t just leave the house at the first sign of terror; He’s A Prisoner of His Owner’s Bad Decision-Making.
Cinematographer Wade Grebnoel Keeps The Camera at Eye Level With Indy, USSING HIS POINT-VIEW to show how the dog sees. Todd, The Neighbor, the Strange Apparitions are obfuscated simply becuse of their height, which adds to the eeriensess of Indy’s Experience but Also Makes Indy’s Recognition of Voice All the More Emotional. To create tension, a lot of the movie is just indy tilting his head in curiosity while looking into the distance, immediately followed by a shot of empty space, which let the imagination go. The Sound Design Also Deserves Huge Credit for How Scary and Impactful “Good Boy” is, swimming just in the case of the bizarre and spooky sounds around the house, but also in how it isolates – or tan sounds that Indy Makes Throunghout the film.
Not that indy’s performance requires any real augmentation, as the title of Leonberg’s Debut is undereselling just how Much of a good boy starts really is. Hisy dark and floppy ears convey a wide range of emotions that sell the horror at Hand just as luidly as they articulate the deep and unbreakable bond between indy and todd. Indeed, “Good Boy” use its its supernatural undertones in order to see a Supernatural Genre Story with a Simple Allegory About A Boy and His Dog.
You can draf you are conclusions about nature of the weird Things Happening in the House – Dogs Can Smell Things We Can’t, Not Just Drugs, but Also Death – There is No Denying, WHIC Him. This Review Won’t Spoil the Pooch’s Fate, but rest assured that “good boy” doesn’t just leave you fearing for indy’s life, it also scares you to what it must be like to grapple with the concept of mortality itself. The Real Dog May Have Had No Idea What Was Happening on Set, or That He Was on A Set to Be with, But HIS performance is all the most affecting for how well leonberg’s is able to leverage that confusion intoo all too relaratable to the humans watching along.
Grade: a-
“Good Boy” Premiered at SXSW 2025. Independent Film Company Opens “Good Boy” in Theaters Friday, October 3.
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