How much the viewer cares about what happens to a film’s protagonist is typically indicative of its quality. Both love and hate are preferable to indifference: Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in Alien and Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris Washington in Get Out are resilient, humane, brave heroes worth rooting for, while Justin Long’s AJ in Barbarian is the human embodiment of toxic masculinity, male privilege and selfishness. These characters evoke nuanced emotional responses in audiences, and the unconventional protagonist of writer, director and cinematographer Ben Leonberg’s 2025 supernatural horror film Good Boy accomplishes this in the most familiar of ways — for those who have carpets and couches coated in loose fur, that is.
- Release Date
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October 3, 2025
- Runtime
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73 minutes
- Director
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Ben Leonberg
- Writers
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Alex Cannon, Ben Leonberg
Also written by Alex Cannon, Good Boy (not to be confused with the twisted 2022 Norwegian horror-comedy of the same name) is a haunted-house tale that unfolds entirely from the perspective of a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retriever named Indy. When Indy’s human, Todd (Shane Jensen), leaves his city apartment for a remote house in the woods he inherited from his late grandfather (Larry Fessenden), ghostly consequences emerge. As a recovering addict in the midst of dire health issues, Todd is already weak and easily assailable. Vexed by frequent calls from his worried sister, Vera (Arielle Friedman), Todd insists he’s perfectly fine and rejects her theories that their grandpa may have died in the house under mysterious — i.e., supernatural — circumstances. But when Indy begins witnessing paranormal happenings like suspicious creaking, spectral visions of a golden retriever and shadowy figures, the four-legged lionheart does everything he can to warn his human of the dangers lurking inside their new home.
Viewers’ impassioned empathy for dogs on screen has been evident since at least 2011, when the website “doesthedogdie.com” was created to provide viewers, readers and gamers with trigger warnings for content involving distressing canine storylines and death scenes. From Old Yeller to I Am Legend, dogs in cinema ravage the heart. But it’s Indy’s empathy that is put on full display in Good Boy, and a necessary spoiler: He doesn’t die.
Human Perspectives are Secondary to Indy the Dog’s Refreshing Gaze
“With keener senses than their human partners, dogs protected cave dwellers from unseen dangers and alerted them to the presence of predators,” the TV blasts as Todd shares popcorn with Indy in their remote new home. “Mankind has left the caves, but the darkness haunts us still.” It’s Indy’s mission to protect his skeptical human before the darkness consumes both of them. As his frightful journey unfolds, Indy’s connection with the other side sends him to dark places: Stuck in a daze, Todd is oblivious to Indy’s frequent interactions with grandpa’s deceased dog, Bandit, and a goopy demon that lurks just beyond the edges of Todd’s vision. These unaccountable scenarios aren’t fully explained; all the audience knows is that “no one has lived [in the house] for more than a few weeks,” according to Vera, who believes it’s cursed.
In contrast to these bleak details, the film’s very first frame immerses the viewer in canine delight (cue cuteness aggression), as Indy’s fur glows under warm golden light with his beige-pink nose and floppy ears in full view. The film’s high-contrast lighting design and use of black negative space is magnificent, consistently guiding the audience’s line of sight to the film’s star. Putting man’s best friend at the center of a spooky haunted house flick is an acknowledgment of a beloved horror trope, the pet-owning experience — e.g. dogs staring into empty corners, seemingly barking at air, growling at a menacing basement door, et cetera — as well as a whimsical character study on the innate compassion of a dog. Inspired by iconic horror novelist Stephen King’s “what if” brainstorming method and the opening of Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist, which features a clairvoyant golden retriever, Leonberg writes in his director’s statement that he asked, “What if the family dog was the only one who knew the house was haunted?”
Leonberg and his producer and wife, Kari Fischer — who play the “bodies” of Todd and Vera — set out to make a horror film starring their own dog, whose real name is Indy. Though Indy is not a trained actor, Leonberg told Deadline that he has this “Jack Nicholson from The Shining-esque thousand-yard stare, and we thought that was a really useful thing to make a movie with.” What began as a compelling concept that could’ve been nothing more than a gimmick then became a creative problem-solving feat of cinematic proportions. The diva pooch wasn’t always on board with what the original screenplay asked of him, but the team’s constant reworking and improvising paid off, as Good Boy‘s innovation and distinctive frame of reference shine brightly. Now, Indy has no clue he’s the lead in a buzz-worthy horror film, nor that he received the Howl of Fame Award at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival.
One could argue that Good Boy was destined to be a short film, but its 73-minute runtime is tight enough to keep the attention of viewers acclimated to seeing human faces in their horror faves. One of the film’s most notable artistic choices is its concealing of human characters’ faces, keeping Todd’s facial features hidden in the dark, out of focus or blurred in a reflection. Combined with ground-level and low-angle shots, the technique directs the audience’s attention to Indy.
Pitfalls in the storyline are worth noting, as the haunted-house origin story and grandpa’s peculiar home-video habit are both too vague and ambiguous for their own good. Still, with sinister shadows reminiscent of 1922’s Nosferatu, a perpetually staticky television reminiscent of 1982’s Poltergeist and other elements akin to 1976’s Carrie and The Sixth Sense, the film acts as a warm love letter to supernatural horror of the past. Still, these tasteful homages don’t keep Good Boy from boasting an identity all its own. Its clever cinematography and spectacular framing make it an artful ode to a dog’s unique point of view, as well as dogs’ potent care for their humans.
From IFC and Shudder, Good Boy hits theaters on October 3, 2025.