Good Boy

• Directed by Ben Leonberg (Feature-Length Directorial Debut)
• March 8, 2025 (SXSW) / October 3, 2025 (US)

A loyal dog attempts to save his owner who is threatened by a dark presence lurking in his late grandfather’s abandoned home.

With no intent at irony, I watched Good Boy with my dog Lloyd. Being a dog lover, I was certainly going to watch a movie where the dog was a central character if not the main character. I wondered how they would get this to work since it is far easier to tell a human story than an authentic animal story.

To keep the focus on the dog Indy (the director’s dog Indy) director Ben Leonberg in his feature-length debut very rarely shows a human face for more than a few seconds keeping the focus on the canine star who is surprisingly expressive even for a dog. Shadows obscure the face or the actors avoid directly looking at the camera in those brief moments that people need to be at the center.

This is very short compared to many modern movies. A little better than 70 minutes, it never sticks around too long. That’s due to keeping the focus on the dog and what it experiences. We know who the humans are but they don’t spend so much time on screen that we become terribly invested in them. In other words they are supporting characters.

Indy’s owner Todd (Shane Jensen) moves to his grandfather’s abandoned home after suffering a bout of his chronic lung condition much to the concern of his sister Vera (Arielle Friedman). Todd is slowly dying in a fashion similar to his grandfather with the implication being both conditions are the result of the dark entity living in the house. That creature is just disturbing. It is a mud-covered skeleton whose visual alone is upsetting and maybe the most upsetting thing in the movie.

Good Boy is less creepy and more depressing. Why? The longer it goes on the more you know the outcome. This is not a weakness. We just come to understand that Indy is no super dog. It works to crush the spirit of the viewer through supernatural events leading to an inevitable outcome. Indy finds himself quickly becoming a powerless observer. As much as he would like to help his master in some way all he can do is stay by his side and wait.

Initially I expected the dog and the person together to defeat whatever the evil was but they don’t do that. What it does do is use the dog to tell the past and present of the story. The dead have reached from beyond the grave to talk to the living. Not the father but his dog Bandit. 

Director Ben Leonberg made a point of announcing that the dog was unhurt in this movie but I still worried. With my dog by my side eventually snoring I became very worried about Indy’s fate. Perhaps it is because Indy turned in such good work. Dog faces are naturally expressive with his being a little more expensive than most.

The ending fit the film. By the time it reached that moment there was a weak and down-beat feeling to the story. Almost hopeless. And while I do like a happy ending of some type, I am good with a well-done sad ending and this was a well-done one. It was not forced but a natural outgrowth of every element laid before. 

Good Boy was not deeply frightening, but disturbing and unsettling. Great horror of a different type.