Good Boy Review: Indy Steals the Show in Ben Leonberg’s Atmospheric Supernatural Horror Told From a Dog’s Perspective
Is Indy a Good Boy? The answer is a resounding yes, as Ben Leonberg, marking his feature-length debut after spending years helming short films since 2009, does a great job directing his own pet dog — a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, to be exact. Interestingly, the movie took over three years to complete the filming process since Leonberg insists on relying on Indy to act naturally without CGI or special effects. Definitely not an easy feat, but Leonberg’s painstaking approach towards Indy pays off pretty well, resulting in one of the best dog acting performances I’ve ever seen. If there’s an Oscar for a category dedicated to the animal actors, Indy is easily a shoo-in favourite to win the award.
Indy is such a cute dog, and it’s hard not to feel affectionate toward his presence and root for him throughout the movie. He’s the centre of attention, a main star that his hooman, I mean, human only plays second fiddle in Good Boy. They are depicted more like silhouettes or only filmed from certain angles, given the fact that Leonberg wanted to keep it real by framing his camera from his dog’s eye level. This, in turn, creates a unique perspective for a horror movie seen through the eyes of a dog. His emotions look genuine, no matter when he’s responding to his owner, Todd (Shane Jensen) or feeling frightened by the sight of an otherworldly figure.
Leonberg, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Cannon, follows the story of Indy and his aforementioned owner, who suffers from a severe illness. Following his hospitalisation, he decides to retreat to his late grandfather’s (Larry Fessenden) home, located far away from the city, with Indy. We see that Todd remains in poor health, coughing up blood occasionally, and his ever-loyal dog is always by his side, even when his owner tends to behave erratically. His sister, Vera (Arielle Friedman), calls and worries about him.
Again, the movie is predominantly told from the dog’s point of view, as Indy begins to sense something dangerous in the house. There’s a sinister shadow lurking somewhere in the dark, to the point of a demonic entity engulfed in thick black substance. What does the entity want? Could it be the ghost of the past, perhaps Todd’s deceased grandfather or something else entirely? Leonberg favours a slow-burn narrative structure to tell his story, opting for building up a foreboding sense of dread that combines the nifty use of shadows, darkness and suggestive camerawork to a certain extent, without relying heavily on jump scares to make a point.
The movie also deliberately warped reality by making us question whether Indy is actually seeing what we see or imagining things. Good Boy reportedly costs US$750,000 to make, and yet, it feels like it costs a few million dollars extra. The overall production values from the lighting to Leonberg’s — credited as Wade Grebnoel — atmospheric cinematography all deserve praise.
Good Boy only runs at 72 minutes, and in theory, that’s modest enough. And yet, I can’t help but feel the movie is overstretched with repetitive moments of Indy encountering the same mysterious entity over and over again. The scares may have been effective at first, but after a while, they get tedious. This is especially true during the movie’s somewhat protracted middle stretch.
But thankfully, Leonberg manages to rebound with a creepy, yet deeply melancholic third act. Let’s just say the movie does more than just your average haunted-house story that delves deeper beyond the usual genre convention. There’s an underlying metaphor which becomes apparent once everything comes together at the end.
