Good Boy

Hey everyone, and welcome. Today, we will be talking about the film Good Boy. Fun Fact: Indy is actually director Ben Leonberg’s dog. This film came out in 2025 and stars Indy, Shane Jensen, and Arielle Friedman, and was directed by Ben Leonberg. So without further ado, let's get right into it.

Good boy follows Indy, a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever, who starts seeing a ghost that is going after his owner. He attempts to do everything he can to let his owner know that he is in trouble.

Good Boy is a supernatural horror movie that also pulls on the emotional strings. It has similar vibes to The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting in Connecticut, or  The Babadook.

Good Boy is a different kind of horror film that takes place from the perspective of a dog named Indy. It was an interesting premise, and it drew me in partly because of how different it was, but also because in Horror movies where they have a dog, the dog always notices the ghost before everyone else. It was interesting to see the story from his perspective and then slowly start to see the story unravel and piece together what was actually happening. It's amazing how they were able to get Indy to show the desired emotions or react a certain way to specific scenes.

Good Boy starts already having us on edge because Indy immediately senses something. Indy's owner, Todd, looks possessed and is spitting up blood, which we later learn is because of cancer that he's doing chemo for. It was scary to see this, and I just knew that once they moved to a house in the middle of nowhere, it would just get worse. Having the perspective of Indy was interesting because even though Indy is a dog, you can tell that he's feeling scared when this ghost pops up, and obviously, his owner is dealing with a lot, so he doesn't look into it much. There's a lot of tension throughout the film because you feel that Indy can just sense it, and sometimes you just don't know where it is. I loved the constant building up of tension and the obscurity of this entity that is bothering Indy and his owner.

There are humans in the movie, obviously, but they don't have a huge speaking role; but more just supporting Indy in his starring role. I love how the film had humans but didn't let them steal Indy's shine away from him. All the humans also can't have a conversation with Indy, so it's a lot of them talking at him and talking to each other while he hears and notices the supernatural occurrences. Because of the lack of speaking, there are just a lot of scenes where you hear ambient sounds, which makes you worried about where and when this ghost will pop up, which adds to the scariness. Sometimes we would see these humans out of focus behind Indy, and we couldn't tell if it was the ghost or an actual human until it got closer. I loved how even tho Indy was scared, he was set on protecting Tod when he thought the ghost was going to hurt him. Indy truly was a good dog and tried his best to stop what was happening.

Setting is important in every film, but in horror films, it becomes even more important. The house they are in is isolated, old, and just creepy, which makes the movie scarier. The idea of a house in the middle of nowhere in horror movies isn't something new, but it works so well. It made me more stressed because Todd was sick, so besides the ghost coming after them, he is alone and dying, and even if something happens where he can be saved, he is too far from people to do anything.

I love some of the lore about the house and Todd and Vera’s grandfather, who we learned died in that house. It seems like the situation was very similar except that his dog stayed because he thought it would come back, and the dog eventually died there. It was creepy how Indy was seeing ghost dogs who basically went through what Indy was going through, and in the end stuck by their owner's side. It was cool to learn a little more, and whether or not the house was haunted, there was definitely something there that was collecting their souls and leading them to the afterlife.

My favorite part of this movie was the plot twist that the ghost in this movie was actually death or the dead owner. I say death or dead owner because it seemed like death when it was dragging him out of the house into the basement. But it could be Todd because it looked like it became Todd as they were in the basement, and it seemed like it was him when he petted Indy and Indy bit him. As the movie went on, I started to notice that the ghost popped up very frequently when Todd's health was really bad, and as he got closer to death, the ghost not only got closer, but he started to see it too. It made this very scary situation turn sad because it hinted that he wasn't going to make it, which he didn't. Cancer storylines are always so sad to me, and to have the scary part of this cancer storyline basically be death is sad because, unfortunately, Todd can't outrun it, and Indy can't save him. The plot twist was cool because I was wondering how Indy would make it out of this situation alive, and if this ghost would kill both of them. In the end, Indy tries to save him, and Todd tells him he needs to go and Vera, Todd's sister, who later comes and saves Indy.

Good Boy is an interesting way to present a horror movie from the eyes of a dog. It is emotional and tense, and will have you feeling ready to jump because you just know something is coming. It mixes some familiar things about horror films, but also adds in some new things, which makes it feel new and different.