The idiom “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” has felt especially relevant in regards to horror lately – every hyped film of 2025 so far has ended up relying on some form of diabolical cult or yet another evil hag, resulting in more yawns than screams from avid sickos at the cinema. While aiming for viral success the genre seems to have forgotten that the horrifying can just be that, and not every mystery needs to be unraveled by the final act, ready to be easily dissected in another ‘Ending Explained!’ YouTube video.
Thankfully there are still some filmmakers that value a simple concept over a convoluted Wikipedia summary masquerading as a story arch. One such film is Ben Leonberg’s debut Good Boy, which follows the loyal canine Indy – who is in fact the director’s dog, talk about népetism – as he struggles to make his owner Todd (Shane Jensen) aware of the supernatural presence haunting their new home.
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Todd is woefully ignorant of the sinister atmosphere emanating from their new digs, but Indy’s attuned senses pick up on everything, including Todd’s increasingly debilitating illness. In order to tap into Indy’s perspective, I had assumed Leonberg would attach a GoPro to the furry thespian and have done with it. Instead, by choosing low camera angles that match the dog’s eyeline while keeping Indy in shot, we are privy to a dog’s eye view without being literally attached to him. Todd is a looming presence, whose hand, shin and voice are much more familiar to Indy than his face, while his refusal to acknowledge the darkness threatening to envelop them both is increasingly frustrating. This ignorance, paired with Indy’s inability to communicate, offers many pantomime opportunities to shout at the screen.
Indy certainly is a very Good Boy, yes he is, and owner and director Leonberg has clearly trained his furry familiar well. As Indy’s awareness of his owner’s mortality grows, it is through his fear stricken eye brows and soft whimpers that the threat that haunts this small cast really comes to life. Although I don’t like to pit two canine stars against each other, he certainly gives Anatomy of a Fall’s Messi a run for his Bonios.
Pet owners often fear the loss of their pet, but rarely consider what their death would mean for their domesticated dependants. While Lassie’s barks inexplicably manage to communicate the gravity of whatever emergency that dog found himself in, Indy doesn’t have the same luck, and it is this powerlessness and state of constant worry that gives Good Boy its tension. With a minimal script that is almost entirely diegetic, Good Boy invites audiences to experience the fear of death in the way Indy can comprehend it, giving the film a similar feel to Flow, serving as a reminder that existential panic transcends humankind. While other horror directors are busy chasing their tails trying to create genre defining moments, Ben Leonberg has succeeded creating a thrilling mid-budget horror that goes beyond pandering to animal lovers or tugging at our heartstrings.
