‘Good Boy’ (review)

Pets hold special places in our lives and hearts, with anyone who has or has had a beloved pet being able to attest to just how much they enrich our existence.

In the world of cinema, pets have a long history as both lead performers and supporting actors, and while it may only be fiction, few things can cement an antagonist’s wretchedness more than hurting pets, with such a misdeed even serving as the catalyst for an entire franchise, as was the case with the John Wick film series.

In horror, pets have also made lasting impressions, Stephen King in particular being responsible for unsettling readers and viewers alike with the calamitous canine Cujo’s rabid rampage, and the resurrection of frightful feline Church foreshadowing the harrowing climax of Pet Sematary.

With Good Boy, Ben Leonberg makes his feature directorial debut by offering the unusual premise of experiencing a horror narrative from the point of view of a dog, namely the film-maker’s own dog, Indy.

Utilizing his natural expressiveness, the furry lead is unenhanced by CGI, and Leonberg instead relies on the camerawork to convey the dog’s perspective from his eye level, as he experiences what appears to be a haunted house, his unwell owner relegated to always appearing out of focus or out of frame.

Seeing as dogs are unable to conveniently spew exposition on behalf of lazy writers, the film weaves a mystery that plays heavily on what man’s best friend senses and sees that we perhaps do not, using the inherent unease associated with liminal spaces to create a thoroughly unnerving atmosphere.

There is some gore and a handful of jump scares along the way, but they are few and far between, which also works in the film’s favor, as it helps to sustain a threatening sense of anticipation that few trust to be sufficient to unsettle their audience in earnest, but Leonberg clearly had a specific vision in mind when he came up with the concept for Good Boy, and he sticks to it with unwavering commitment.

While a lean runtime of 73 minutes automatically reduces the film’s risk of usurping its novelty, the risk of such a high concept film losing the interest of its audience is still significant, however, thanks to the only context being provided by the scattered snippets of dialogue between a few human characters in the background, much of the narrative is left up to interpretation in a manner that builds a sincere momentum, which is impressively maintained from start to finish.

Good Boy could easily have become a disappointing case of novelty for the sake of novelty, but the way the atmosphere is built and the sense of dread sustained works exceedingly well in terms of suspending one’s disbelief, spinning a creepy tale in an eerie setting that works much better than most would have predicted.

Verdict: 8 out of 10.

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Produced by Kari Fischer, Ben Leonberg
Written by Alex Cannon, Ben Leonberg
Directed by Ben Leonberg
Starring Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman,
Larry Fessenden, Indy, Stuart Rudin