The fun things about horror films are the creative ways filmmakers have found to push the genre into new directions. The latest, Good Boy brings an all-new focus with a dog known as Indy, as the lead and sole pathway to what is going on. The film does feature human actors as well including Larry Fessenden, Arielle Friedman, Shane Jensen, Anya Krawcheck and Stuart Rudin from Indy’s real-life owner and director Ben Leonberg. Could this film have something special worth begging for or should it be locked in a kennel?

 

Good Boy follows a loyal dog who moves to a rural family home with his owner Todd, 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.

 

From the idea alone I was instantly intrigued by this film. My concerns were more about how it could keep the focus sheer on the dog and whether it would run its course too soon. Smartly, the film has a shorter running time and does a great job to keep it compelling and edge of your seat even when nothing is happening. This is mostly thanks to Indy himself who is all personality whether he knows he is in a film or not. He communicates like any dog but says so much with his eyes and mannerisms that the film works all around.

 

It's not a complicated story which is smart as it helps the narrative move along at a brisk pace as we spend all the time down at Indy’s level with very few glimpses of any of the human co-stars faces until later in the film. Leonberg does a great job at building the tension throughout the film with a lot of it just in Indy’s reactions to things we never see but know something is out there. When we do get glimpses of something they are quick and jarring to keep the viewer guessing on tense at every turn.