Good Boy (2025) Dir: Ben Leonberg

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Directed by Ben Leonberg, this independent haunted house horror caught my eye, as it did many people in the film community, because of its rather unique approach; choosing to tell its supernatural horror story from the point of view of a dog. How well this would work, I was unsure, but some very solid reviews convinced me it was worth my time to find out what it was like for myself, and there is no better way to experience a new film than at the cinema.

I thought the film was shot in an interesting way - not just placing the camera down at a dog's eye level a lot of the time, but actively keeping the focus off of the human character's faces. It forced the audience to identify and pay attention to the dog as a protagonist, which was a smart decision, in my opinion. The editing was fine, but fairly unimpressive - once or twice the way certain scenes were executed came across as pretty goofy, and not because of the dog.

The film was very atmospheric, and, at times, quite suspenseful, but I did not necessarily find it to be scary. Only one of the jumpscares really got me, although, in fairness, it really did get me. From a more critical perspective, I wouldn't exactly say that the various horror antics were particularly new or frightening, and the narrative was fairly light. I think this would have made an absolutely tremendous short film - not that this was a particularly long film; it totalled just seventy three minutes, including the credits - but the gimmick got a little tired, even for me, by the time the film ended, unfortunately.

The kanine protagonist; Indy, who played himself, did very well, despite not being a trained animal actor. I can't say too much more, other than that, yes, he was a good boy. The only human actor who had a significant part to play was Shane Jensen, who, in fairness, gave a fairly decent performance, despite the audience almost never seeing his face. He gave the film some light, indirect, narration, which helped with storytelling a little too, and he seemed to have a good relationship with his kanine co-worker.

Overall, I thought this was an interesting little horror film, which had a unique concept that I really enjoyed. It was perhaps stretched too thinly, from a narrative perspective, and I wouldn't say it was a hugely scary film, but, for what it's worth, I was glad I watched it. It was a nice idea, for what it was. I was a big fan of Indy - I thought he did a really good job. I just wish the story around him had been a little stronger to match.