Wow, when was the last time I reviewed a movie while it was still in theaters? Wait, nobody look that up.

Good Boy (2025):

The Plot: Loyal dog Indy (Indy, the director’s dog) accompanies his sick owner Todd (Shane Jensen) to a secluded house in the woods. Indy senses a sinister presence lurking in the shadows that the human can’t seem to see. Will this good dog be able to discover what’s haunting the house and find a way to protect his master?

First things first: Concerned dog lovers can check out Good Boy‘s page on the website Does the Dog Die?

In some ways Good Boy reminded me of last year’s Canadian indie In a Violent Nature. The former is a deliberately-paced, unpleasantly gory slasher told from the killer’s perspective, but for all its long walks across meadows, the story it’s telling isn’t anything new. Good Boy, thankfully, is PG-13 and much less mean-spirited, but they’re both gimmick films. This movie’s tale of ghosts and grief would feel derivative and under-baked with a human protagonist. Indy’s presence makes it an effective calling-card for a new filmmaker, and a worthwhile watch for the rest of us.

As a feature film debut and a piece of indie filmmaking, Good Boy is an impressive achievement. Director Ben Leonberg shot the film over a period of three and a half years, using his own home as the location and his dog as the star. In a behind-the-scenes featurette that plays after the movie in theaters, he takes pains to emphasize that Indy is neither acting nor really feeling the emotions onscreen. The dog’s “performance” is a combination of careful shot planning, clever editing, and Indy’s naturally somber expression. That the film works as well as it does is a testament to the skills of Leonberg and editor Curtis Roberts.

Though its ghost story is nothing new, Good Boy is genuinely frightening at times. Leonberg maintains an ominous tone throughout, and effectively ratchets up the tension as Indy explores the haunted house. A wordless sequence with the ghost of a previous canine occupant is especially creepy. It helps that the film plays fair with the dog’s point of view. Indy is smart, but he is still a dog. He never fully understands what’s happening, even as the audience figures things out pretty quickly. This is one horror film where having the protagonist be slow on the uptake is a feature, not a bug. In a way, Indy’s innocence makes him the ideal lead for this kind of movie. How could you not be worried about the little guy?

The downside of this commitment to the bit, as it were, is that there’s only so much you can do with a protagonist who doesn’t really know what’s going on. Even at a tight 73 minutes, Good Boy starts losing steam in the third act. The movie is heavily reliant on jump scares and blurry figures lurking in the background, techniques which become repetitive. The frights also lose some of their potency as the audience realizes where the movie is going.

Without giving too much away, Good Boy is not a fun haunted house movie about the things your dog sees when it’s staring at a random spot on the wall. It is, to its detriment, a movie about grief. The question the film is asking is: “What do our pets feel when we face a life-threatening illness?” They feel confused and upset, and that’s it. Much of the film’s emotional heft comes from Indy’s inability to comprehend the reality of the situation beyond sensing that something is wrong. While good for short-term plucking of the heartstrings, it’s ultimately unsatisfying, especially since this is well-trod ground inside and outside of the horror genre*.

Still, the film is well crafted enough that its limitations didn’t bother me until the credits were rolling. The brief runtime may be a benefit here. There’s very little downtime between scares, and Sam Boase-Miller’s dissonant, somewhat overpowering score keeps you primed for the next little jolt. If it all doesn’t add up to much, well…it’s a first feature, made on a limited budget, starring a dog. Good Boy is clearly a labor of love, and one likes to grade these things on a curve. Leonberg is going to be a talent to watch.

Good Boy is currently in theaters, and will begin streaming on Shudder on 11/21/25.

Tune in next week for some giant monster mayhem (and also probably more information about the history of the Godzilla franchise than you really want or need, but it’s my blog so just you try and stop me)!

*Greyfriars Bobby, anyone?