Meet Indy — the modern-day Benji of things that go bump in the night. Benji was a famous dog actor in the 70s and 80s who was phenomenal at his job. His trainer, Frank Inn, was a part of Hollywood’s A-list talents from behind the scenes.
Fast-forward to today; Ben Leonberg is Indy’s owner and is also the director of Good Boy, a cute, terrifying, and wholly original film and future Halloween classic which opens theatrically on Oct. 3.
Kill all the screaming teens you want, put kids under the spell of an aging witch, have pregnant women battle the devil in utero. That’s fine. But don’t you dare put animals in danger, that’s overstepping a cinematic boundary.
That’s not to say the horror movie Good Boy doesn’t put its canine hero into very scary situations, but as millions discovered on the “does the animal die” website, [SPOILER] there’s no Old Yeller or John Wick moment.
Think of Good Boy as The Sixth Sense unleashed. Our adorable pooch, named Indy, has some psychic abilities; just like in the Shyamalan classic — he sees dead people; he can also smell them.
His owner, Todd, has moved them to an old family house nestled in the woods. Todd is suffering from something, his health is poorly, and he throws up blood. Based on his IV bandages, it seems like cancer?
But his little secluded forest retreat is hiding something sinister, and Indy is getting wrapped up in the mystery thanks to a resident ghostly dog with which he shares a psychic connection.
The house is haunted by a dark, insidious figure who appears to possess its victims slowly. It seems only Indy knows if his owner is being overtaken by the incorporeal beast, or maybe it’s his owner’s disease materializing. Or both. The audience can make up its own mind.
Indy doesn’t understand it himself; he just sees things trying to harm his master and wants to protect him.
This movie could have been titled The Conjuring for Dogs, and that’s not a gimmick. It’s got that Wanian spook factor with weird angles and dark environments. There are some scenes filmed in almost no light; it’s hard to see what’s going on. Indy’s face gets the spot, but everything around him is hidden, which can make things eerie but not terrifying.
Obviously, the true star here isn’t the script, the humans, or even the plot. At a runtime of only 73 minutes, this is Indy’s movie and boy does he deserve some kind of award.
Every inquisitive look, every frightened reaction, every loving stare has more emotion than even the most skilled actor could emote. Nothing looks staged. In other films, you can see the animal actors looking for treats off-camera. Not Indy. He’s like the Meryl Streep of animal actors.
Good Boy as a whole is an effective horror movie with some basic tropes. And if you were one of the people who looked up the ending before watching it, you might kick yourself. This is a movie for dog lovers and horror fans.
But, even so, this film is a creepy, small-scale gem worth watching if not for Indy’s performance alone. We see more cinematic adventures for this pooch in the near future.
Good Boy will open theatrically on Oct.3 and will stream on Shudder in the future.
