A Horror Movie For Dogs: Good Boy

Back in March, I heard about a new horror movie that premiered at the SXSW film festival, and it quickly became my most anticipated film of the year. I searched google regularly to find any hint of when it would be released to the theaters, and then Shudder bought it. So I was worried that they were going to put it straight on streaming. Thankfully this was not the case, and a little over a month ago, Shudder went on a major advertising campaign on social media promoting Good Boy. I was counting down the days till it premiered. I even bought tickets days in advance, which I rarely do. Not because I was worried it would sell out, because movies do not sell out here, but simply because I was excited. 

So why was I so excited about Good Boy? One look at the movie poster, and it is probably very easy to see that it is about a dog, but what makes it special is that the movie is mostly filmed from the dog's perspective, or as I wrote in my One Sentence Review, “A ground breaking horror movie made for dogs, and it's safe to say some pups may never sleep again!” Although this is a little tongue and cheek, it does feel like it is made for dogs, and I do not mean that derogatorily.

So although this is Indy's story, everything that happens to Indy is due to his owner, Todd, who in the opening scene has blood oozing from his mouth. It intially seems demonic, but after a healing montage, and a trip to the doctor later in the movie, it becomes apparent that Todd has a serious respiratory illness, but he supposedly beats it, and he is freed to go back and be with Indy. Todd is tired of his city apartment though, and he decides to move out to a secluded home that his family owns that is supposedly haunted.

Indy does not even want to get out of the car when they arrive at the house, but reluctantly he jumps out in the pouring rain. When they get inside, the power fails immediately, and Indy knows better than to follow Todd into the basement to try and fix it. Instead, he goes to explore, and he finds a corner of the house that is darker than the rest, and he just stares at it. These behaviors continue, as the days pass, but the dark spots start to take shape, and it is clear that there is something more sinister lurking.

As the presence in the house intensifies, so does Todd’s disease. Despite his sister constantly asking if he had relapsed, he continues to deny it, even after the doctor confirms it. Sadly, Todd starts to treat Indy differently too, and Indy just wants to be there for him and protect him. At one point, Todd throws Indy out and ties him to the doghouse, and Indy is left to fight for his freedom to try and prevent the entity from over taking Todd altogether.

Todd moved into his uncle’s house, who died of a similar disease as to what Todd had. They thought Todd had recovered, but once he went to the house, he started to go downhill again. Now, this movie leads the viewer to believe that it is the presence in the house that got the two of them sick and encouraged others to depart shortly after moving into it. Personally, I think that there might not have been any presence at all. The house was clearly under construction when Todd moved in, and the basement had water in it. Black mold is the real evil presence that was causing them to all get severely sick and die. Their house just needed to be dried. I say this jokingly, but it is interesting to see a horror about a disease being passed down genetically instead of a horror about trauma being past down, which has become the predominant theme now.

There were some dream sequences though that proved this theory about black mold wrong. Normally in a horror movie in a nightmare, people will see people walking through their house, but because this is a dog scary movie, Indy saw a ghost of the dog of the past owner walking through the house. It was fun to see a nightmare sequence for a dog, and honestly, they made it intense. So now you can have a visual of what your dog might be imagining when they are laying on the floor asleep with their legs twitching.

Despite being a horror, this movie had a serious artistic feel to it. There were so many shots that I would have loved to have been the photographer behind it. It helps that the house they moved to was out in the woods and secluded, so they spend a large amount of time out in the foggy forest, and it is just beautiful. My two favorite shots are of Indy and Todd walking down from the house into the woods, where everything is framed perfectly as they slowly walk down a hill in this perfect fall landscape. The next is when the two of them are sitting on an old stone wall out in the woods with their backs to the camera just relaxing. If I took that picture, it would be hanging on the wall in my home.

Based off some of these shots, it became apparent to me that this film was done with a small crew. There were so many shots where the camera would just stay in one place. It reminds me of when I go out in the woods, and I want a picture of myself or whoever I am with, and I just set the camera up so it stays in one spot and go from there. Whereas in other movies there might be fast constant cutting, in this movie, the camera placement was purposeful, and it had a clear goal.

My feeling about this was confirmed at the end of the movie, because after the credits rolled, they did a brief feature on how they filmed it. This was really cool, and I wish that more films did this. Just a brief five minutes on how some of the shots in the movie were done. This film was unique, because the main actor was a dog, and as they say in the commentary, Indy does not know he is acting, so they must work hard to get him to do what they want.

This leads to some comedic behind the scenes footage. What in the movie seems like a scary tense moment, behind the scenes is something completely different. There are many close ups on Indy’s face throughout, and to get him to look where they wanted him to, the camera man would be making quacking noises or holding a toy, it is just the production around the shot that makes it seem like Indy is feeling an emotion, which they explained. So the music and the change in lighting helps to create the proper spooky atmosphere, and we are just projecting emptions onto Indy’s face.

If you are a dog owner, or even a cat owner, you have probably experienced a moment where your pet is staring at the wall and maybe even barking at seemingly nothing. I know I have seen my dog do it, and it is spooky. So this whole movie is basically, what if your dog is actually seeing some poltergeist that we cannot see.

The problem is the scares are sparse. There are a few major jump scares that got me, and I will not lie, some of this movie left me bored. I do not think this is necessarily a bad thing. If you think about it, a dog spends a lot of time sitting around doing nothing, and this was his tale, so it makes sense. Also as mentioned, the movie is artistic, so even if nothing interesting is happening at the moment, there is something great to look at and dissect.

One way they try to emphasize that this is Indy’s story is the lack of faces being shown in the film. Todd is present for most of the movie, but it feels like the shots intentionally keep his face out of it. I think this was a purposeful choice to show the audience where the focus should be, the beautiful brave boy that is Indy, and it is a story about a dog’s loyalty, even when we do not always deserve it.

Indy is an incredibly great looking dog. It was a pleasure to watch him on the big screen, and I was constantly captivated by him. I kept my eyes peeled on the screen, and I really enjoyed this unique movie. I am hopeful that more movies will take this approach in the future. This was a small film, and the director said that it took him three years to slowly film it during daily life, and it is clear that a ton of love and passion was poured into this film. I suggest seeing it, just make sure if you show it to your dog that you are prepared for them to sleep in your room with the lights on. 4 Stars!