PLOT: A loyal dog moves to a rural family home with his owner, only to discover supernatural forces lurking in the shadows. As dark entities threaten his human companion, the brave pup must fight to protect the one he loves most.
REVIEW: The classic possession/haunted house story has been done to death. It’s hard to introduce an element that actually makes the film stand out. Good Boy does just that by making its lead character a dog and following the entire story from his perspective. While that can certainly be limiting, both in scope and in quicker exposition, it’s an interesting look at a familiar story from a different perspective.
Good Boy follows a dog named Indy who watches as his owner is haunted by a dark entity. Once they move to a countryside house, things only get worse, and Indy has to try and help out his master before it’s too late. There’s a lot to like about any film that tries something different and I certainly had my concerns that the gimmick would wear thin. Thankfully, the filmmaking is up to snuff and cares about more than just fulfilling the idea of a dog in the movie, and works to make the canine an actual character in the story.
It’s so strange to be talking about a dog’s performance, but it’s hard not to when it comes to a film like this. Indy isn’t a “stunt dog,” yet he clearly takes commands well, as the filmmakers are able to get what actually feels like a performance out of him. There are so many ways that this could have gone wrong, and yet they were able to do a great job making the dog emote and move at the right times. I wonder how many treats were used during the making of this movie to coax him? It helps that Indy himself is absolutely adorable and seems like the most loyal dog in the world. Really lends to the narrative of this dog doing whatever it can to save his owner.
The human performances are mostly okay, but definitely come across as a bit awkward. I assume this is because the primary focus was on the dog and probably had to use takes where the dog does what is required, versus the human performance working. It’s nothing egregious, but it’s certainly noticeable. It doesn’t help that the human characters themselves lack depth and therefore are hard to connect with. Given that the whole plot of the film revolves around saving this guy from the darkness, it’s certainly a mark against it. Ultimately, though, this is really about the dog and, if you want more than that, then you should probably look elsewhere.
Admittedly, the haunted house tale is filled with pretty basic tropes, like the former occupant dying mysteriously, and all the ghostly shenanigans happening at night. It’s very by-the-numbers and doesn’t really reach outside of the gimmick often. I do wish that they had gone for some more original story beats, but I assume the filmmaking was probably quite limited with a canine lead. While Good Boy is very short (with a runtime of only 72 minutes), it’s an interesting and unique experience. While it’s all rather simple and doesn’t break new ground story-wise, seeing everything from Indy’s POV colors the film in an interesting way.
GOOD BOY IS PLAYING IN THEATERS ON OCTOBER 3RD, 2025.
