"Good Boy" is a supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Ben Leonberg. Starring Shane Jensen in the lead human role and Indy in the lead canine role, it makes effective use of its intriguing gimmick thanks to some creative direction and memorable performance from its animal actor. In New Jersey, Todd (Shane Jensen) and his pet Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever dog Indy move into a house that was once owned by Todd's late grandfather (Larry Fessenden). Although the house is believed to be haunted, Todd brushes off these claims and tries his best to settle into this new location out in a remote wooded area. However, Indy begins to see unsettling things that Todd apparently cannot, including sinister shadows, frightening apparitions, and humanoid figures passing in and out of the house at their leisure. With few ways of communicating these supernatural happenings to Todd, Indy tries his best to cope with all of the scary occurrences that continue to haunt him and his owner out in this forested wilderness, whether their intentions are harmful or not. It is reasonable to come to the conclusion that out of all of the animals we see depicted on screen, it is the humble dog that usually receives the most love from audiences around the world. Frequently referred to as "man's best friend", these canines always earn this nickname by means of their loyalty, dependability, and physical cuteness that is hard to resist. This is why nobody wants to see these innocent creatures either dying or being hurt right in front of them. After all, the catalyst for a certain popular action film franchise was the main character's dog being killed and him setting out to avenge its death by any means necessary. Utilising an interesting storytelling technique that is often overlooked, "Good Boy" is a worthwhile horror movie told from the perspective of a dog trying to protect his owner from the fearsome events they each experience that is equally as scary as it is heartfelt. Told nearly entirely at the eye level of Indy, the film shows us all of the events unfold the way any dog may witness them occurring along with its owner. Beginning in a small dark lounge room lit only by TV static, we see Indy lying quietly next to his master Todd as the latter snoozes peacefully on the couch. Suddenly, something piques Indy's interest that causes him to look up; a human-shaped silhouette manifesting from the corner of the room. Before Indy has time to wake his owner up, Todd's mobile phone starts ringing, causing him to rise from his slumber to answer the call. On the other end of the phone is Todd's sister Vera (Arielle Friedman), who informs him that their grandfather has passed away and left his allegedly haunted house to Todd in his will. Deciding to move in right away, Todd packs up his things and takes Indy with him to live away from civilisation in this small house out in the forested area. Though Indy clearly doesn't like this change in living quarters, he chooses to put up with this for the sake of appeasing his owner. Once the two of them settle in to the new place, strange things start to happen around Indy that Todd apparently cannot see. For instance, while Todd goes about his daily business around the house, Indy cannot look away from the stairs leading to the basement, as though there could be someone down there waiting to attack them. Even though Todd goes in and out of the basement without issue, Indy still senses something is a amiss and keeps his gaze firmly fixed on the darkness surrounding the door leading downstairs. Since he has no real way of verbally telling his owner of any potential danger, all Indy can really do is bark and whimper in hopes that Todd will stay away from danger, which yields mixed results in the long run. Knowing that Todd's safety means the world to Indy, you can't help but love this adorable canine friend in his pursuit of protecting his master from harm. Although as mentioned earlier, it's pretty easy to find a dog character likeable in just about every form of visual media. Thanks to some innovative filming techniques, director Ben Leonberg always makes the audience feel as though they are watching every single event unfold directly from Indy's point of view. To achieve this, Leonberg almost always places the camera at ground level to give the viewer the impression that the world seems big and scary to a dog without a human owner to guide them around. As a result, you really do feel like you are experiencing the same amount of fear and confusion along with poor Indy at all times, whether it's witnessing a dark apparition bashing its head on a door or disembodied footprints appearing on the floor without warning. Even something as simple as a fox wandering around the woods in front of the house can come across as something sinister within the context of what a dog might perceive as threatening. Additionally, Leonberg very rarely shows any human characters' faces, including Todd himself, obscuring them either with shadows or conveniently placed objects in the foreground. On that note, there's this one shot that stood out to me where Indy is seen standing behind the vertical wooden bars on the patio looking at Todd getting out of his car in the rain. Resembling a jail cell of sorts, I interpreted this as Indy being unable to break out of this symbolic language-restricted prison to warn his owner that danger lurks inside the house. Because we can't see Todd's face throughout all of this, the selling point here is Indy's concerned body language, reminding the audience that this is a dog's story and not the humans. For a trained animal, Indy the dog does a superb job expressing just as much emotion as any real human actor, perhaps even more so in some cases. Belonging to director Ben Leonberg, Indy gives what could possibly be one of the best performances from a dog actor in the history of cinema, completely carrying the weight of the movie from start to finish. Reportedly, Leonberg spent 400 days over the course of three years trying to achieve the appropriate level of realism in Indy's on screen performance, and to say he succeeded would be an understatement. I've never seen a dog convey so many different emotional states from his face and body language alone, ranging from genuine fear in his eyes to his obvious relief that Todd is finally home after work. Also, without revealing spoilers, the final scene at the film's climax will likely cause dog lovers everywhere to well up with tears, though not in the way you might expect. As a horror movie and a tribute to our canine friends, "Good Boy" succeeds in both departments by combining the two together to create one of the most unique experiences to grace cinema screens in a while. There wouldn't be many other filmmakers like Ben Leonberg willing to take the risk of telling a horror story entirely from a dog's point of view, let alone one who uses their own dog in the process, but this one proves that it was a risk well worth taking. Even if you aren't a dog person, there are still plenty of other aspects of the film to appreciate on a technical level, ranging from its consistently ominous atmosphere to some inventive cinematography that allows you to see things from an entirely different perspective. To everyone concerned for Indy's wellbeing, nothing bad actually happened to this dog in real life or in the film, as Leonberg was forced to confirm due to overwhelming public demand. Because of that, I can now say that all of those who love dogs like me can breathe a collective sigh of relief and watch the movie like normal. I rate it 7/10.

See other user reviews