Good Boy (dir. Ben Leonberg)

by Jack Martin | Oct 10, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 73 mins

UK Distributor: Vertigo Releasing

UK Release Date: 10 October 2025

WHO’S IN GOOD BOY?

Indy, Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman, Larry Fessenden, Stuart Rudin, Anya Krawcheck

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Ben Leonberg (director, writer, producer), Alex Cannon (writer), Kari Fischer (producer), Sam Boase-Miller (composer), Wade Grebnoel (cinematographer), Curtis Roberts (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A loyal dog (Indy) witnesses his owner (Jensen) succumb to supernatural forces…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON GOOD BOY?

Pets are often some of the smartest characters in horror movies, given their uncanny ability to sense the threat – be it supernatural or just plain evil – well before the actual humans do. It’s probably why most of them end up dying, not just as a somewhat trite excuse to drudge up sympathy and establish the genuine stakes, but also because if they kept barking or meowing or whatnot every time the killing force would be about to make its move, it would make for a rather easy ordeal for the humans.

Due to that particular trope, Good Boy – from filmmaker Ben Leonberg – briefly trended after its trailer dropped, when viewers took to Google to see if, like so many other horror movies, the dog at its centre makes it out alive. While it would be a major spoiler to say whether that is or isn’t the case, the fact that people were this concerned about the wellbeing of this particular horror movie pet is an indication that audiences care for the oft-doomed animals as much, maybe even more so, than their owners. That helps Good Boy significantly, as it is an already creepy supernatural horror that ranks among the year’s finest, but add on top of that a seriously impressive animal performance as well as creative ways of showing things from its point of view, and you have something that really is one of a kind.

The star of the show is Indy, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever owned in real-life by Leonberg, but in the film by a sickly man named Todd (Shane Jensen), who abruptly moves to his late grandfather’s house in the middle of the woods, with Indy in tow. Almost immediately, Indy notices some unusual presences around the house, most notably an entity covered in a mud-like substance that seems to be directly after Todd, possibly to possess his body or, even worse, force him to succumb to a terrible fate. All Indy can do, though, is observe and occasionally bark at the hauntings going on around him, all while trying to alert his owner to the dangers before he is consumed by them.

Taking a typical haunted house template and telling it from the perspective of a dog adds a surprisingly fresh touch to the familiar formula, one that is both legitimately unnerving but also rather sad. Leonberg uses some clever filmmaking techniques to literally drop the viewer to Indy’s level and accompany the dog as he wanders through endlessly ominous rooms, hallways and cellars, the darkness in each location creating a frightening atmosphere whenever he witnesses nightmarish ghostly imagery straight out of a Paranormal Activity movie. The scares are simple yet effective, for Leonberg shoots them in such a way with a light wide-angle lens where even regular rooms come off as terrifying, while the film relies less on traditional jump-scares and more on mere mood for its source of horror, with figures in the background often appearing without unnecessary music stingers and are thus creepier because of it.

While the film works rather well as a horror, there are also some genuinely upsetting scenes that elevate the material even beyond its unique concept. It’s established early on that Todd, the hapless human to whom Indy is eternally loyal, is most likely not long for this earth anyway, given that he’s suffering from some sort of advanced lung disease that causes him to cough up blood every now and then, and that’s when he’s not having severe aneurisms or, in one chilling scene, banging his increasingly bloodied head onto a locked door in the middle of the night. But from the dog’s point of view, he’s someone who still needs the protection of his furry companion from whatever may be targeting him from the other side, though via some creative framing where we barely see Todd’s face for a majority of the film, we can already see that man and beast are slowly but surely drifting further apart. In this case, Indy’s loyalty will not be enough to prevent the inevitable, which the dog slowly learns to accept but nonetheless makes a valiant effort to try and stop it from happening.

So yes, it is another of these horror movies that frames the concept of grief and acceptance of a loved one’s fate around a standard ghost story, but Good Boy makes it work because there’s something more upsetting about seeing such a thing happen from a dog’s point of view, especially one whose loyalty is among many adorable traits that Indy carries. The dog himself is an outstanding animal actor, very well-trained as he knows exactly where to look or walk towards, emotive without uttering a single line of dialogue (barking doesn’t count), and easily lovable through his gentle and loving screen presence. Even in moments where he partakes in time-honoured horror traditions like the fake-out dream sequence or running through a glass window, Indy is great at conveying utter terror but also a sense of conviction, instantly putting him among a rank of movie dogs like Lassie and Rin Tin Tin that carry as much or even more empathy and stamina as their human co-stars.

It’s a breezy sit at 73 minutes, which goes by fast because you are invested in this story and how it’s being told, even when parts of it feel very familiar for this kind of film. But as a showcase for a formidable new canine talent, Good Boy is indeed just that, and a little bit more for anyone who laps up supernatural horror like it’s a full bowl of Kibbles ‘n Bits.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Good Boy is a typical supernatural horror template where the simple shift in perspective toward the haunted individual’s dog makes all the difference, for not only is canine star Indy a formidable animal talent but he also elevates the creepy and also upsetting atmosphere created by filmmaker Ben Leonberg, his real-life owner.