I’ve been rather pleased with a number of the horror movies that have come out this year. Ryan Coogler combined history, vampires, racism, and music to give one of the best big-budget horror movies in ages with Sinners. Weapons was just fantastic. And even if The Monkey didn’t work for me, it was still a departure from a lot of other movies of its type. These are highly creative movies, and when you toss in the not-really-a-horror-movie Presence, I think it is safe to say that it’s just been a good year for horror.
Now, the aforementioned Presence told its story from the point of view of a ghost in a haunted house. But now, there’s Good Boy, telling the story of what may be a haunted house from the point of view of a dog. Is this going to be one of those movies that kills the dog off? Well…no comment there. I try not to spoil endings with these reviews.
Indy (playing himself) is the loyal dog of Todd (Shane Jensen), and Todd has some problems. Going against the advice of his concerned sister Vera (Indy (playing himself) is the loyal dog of Todd (Shane Jensen), and Todd has some problems. Going against the advice of his concerned sister Vera (Arielle Friedman), Todd moves out to their grandpa’s abandoned house deep in the woods. The siblings grandfather (Larry Fessenden) had died himself in this house, leaving behind some VHS tapes. Like Todd, Grandpa had a loyal dog Bandit, and Bandit disappeared around the same time Grandpa died. All this happens around Indy as Indy is mostly just concerned about odd shadows, weird scents, and other things that only he seems to notice around Todd.
That, in essence, is the movie. There’s something going on in that cabin, and Indy is the only one who notices it. Todd has problems. The generators don’t always work all night. Todd is acting strangely. Indy sees shadows and has nightmares, often involving the long-missing Bandit. The opening scenes consisted of home movies of Todd and Indy bonding from Indy’s puppyhood to now, and one thing is very clear: Indy is going to do everything he can to protect Todd. Granted, Indy is a dog. He probably only understands but so much, and there are only so many things that a dog can actually do.
First things first: the horror in this movie is more atmospheric than anything else. There are a couple good jumpscares, but by and large, it’s more a case of Indy sees or smells things that aren’t right. The audience basically only knows as much as Indy is around to see and hear, and the camera is often set low, obscuring the faces of the human characters for most of the movie. Perhaps the most pervasive sound in the film is Indy’s sniffing around. And quite frankly, everything about this movie works. The way the movie is set up, the audience can probably read what happens one of two ways, one more supernaturally-influenced than the other, but the thing to remember is basically this: everything that happens in this movie is from Indy’s viewpoint, and in the end, Indy is just a very good dog.\
Now, I saw the movie in theaters–it will probably be on the Shudder streaming service soon if it isn’t already–and that experience ended with a nice, post-credits treat where co-writer/director Ben Leonberg actually talks about how he made the movie. Indy is Leonberg’s actual dog, not a trained “actor dog,” and the movie was filmed largely in Leonberg’s own house with his wife working alongside of him with a skeleton crew over a period of, apparently, three years. Leonberg discusses how he and his wife were able to get a performance out of Indy, a dog that Leonberg stresses never understood that he was in a movie. This behind-the-scenes featurette actually made the end product even more impressive to me as Leonberg clearly understands filmmaking and how to get a performance out of a dog that was maybe thinking they were playing, helped along the way by simply knowing what shots to put where. I don’t know if Leonberg has another Good Boy in him, but he hit one out of the park with this one.
Grade: A
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