{"id":10042438,"date":"2025-10-03T11:15:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/?p=10042438"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:15:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:15:25","slug":"good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Good Boy’ Review: A doggone great horror picture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My greatest fear when walking into Ben Leonberg\u2019s Good Boy<\/em><\/strong> was that it would ultimately turn out to be like Jason Eisener\u2019s segment in V\/H\/S 2<\/em>, which was a thoroughly nasty little bit of found-footage that ends in a (perhaps appropriately, given the subject matter) apocalyptic fashion that nevertheless had me wanting to put three rounds into the screen like I was Elvis trying to change the channel. That short \u2014 an outgrowth of the \u201clet\u2019s mount a camera to Fido\u201d YouTube video applied to an alien invasion \u2014 ended with the dog dying, and it took me 10 years to even vaguely consider giving another one of those movies a shot on streaming (from what I hear, I didn\u2019t miss much until Beyond<\/em>). Like any red-blooded human being, I hate<\/em> seeing bad shit happen to animals on screen, which is why I was never once able to enjoy The Boondock Saints<\/em> and still hold a grudge against Jason Yu for what he did to Pepper, the poor Pomeranian in his film Sleep<\/a><\/em>. Apparently, enough folks were worried after seeing the trailer that searches for \u201cdoes the dog die in good boy\u201d trended on Google, and IFC wound up releasing a PSA<\/a> to let the world know that yes, Indy, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever who leads the film and is, in his regular life, Leonberg\u2019s pet, makes it to the adorable end-credits montage. If you\u2019re going to spend three years <\/em>crafting a 73-minute horror tribute to your dog\u2019s eternal affection and care for you, as Leonberg did here, you\u2019re most likely not going to kill off the talent and undermine the whole message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, whoever marked Good Boy<\/em> as a \u201ccomedy\u201d on Google should brace themselves for a wave of boos and jeers \u2013 part of what makes Leonberg\u2019s feature so appealing is how seriously it takes its premise (not to mention the fact that, unless prompted and cued by talking-animal bullshit, most folks will be too scared for the little guy\u2019s safety to be laughing). It\u2019s a haunted house movie, one with a particularly tragic premise. Indy\u2019s owner, Todd (Shane Jensen), is sick \u2013 he has some unspecified respiratory issue \u2013 and after a final stint in the hospital, he goes out to his grandfather\u2019s old cabin to live what may be his last days in peace away from all of the stresses of the city. Grandad (Larry Fessenden) had a similar illness before he died, and died with his dog Bandit at his side, the only witness to the supernatural element that may have contributed to his demise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indy can tell something\u2019s wrong right away when they get to the cabin, and Todd\u2019s mystified as to why his usually peppy pup is so reticent to get out of his SUV\u2019s passenger seat. His instincts, as we will come to discover, are often right on the money, given that his enhanced senses can detect something<\/em> lurking in the corners of empty rooms. His owner can\u2019t see the shadowy presence that\u2019s stalking them both, but Indy sure can, and he can smell the fear on Bandit\u2019s bandana, found behind a dresser, or on Grandad\u2019s easy chair. Moreover, he starts to notice what the specter is doing to Todd \u2013 taking his sunny disposition and turning it into something crueler as the human wastes away. Is it the ghost causing the trouble? Is it just the final dregs of this horrible illness? There\u2019s an answer, but it won\u2019t come until it’s nearly too late, and the dog lovers in the audience have already pulled out their tissue travel packs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good Boy<\/em> operates on a similar wavelength to In a Violent Nature<\/a><\/em>, distributor-mate Shudder\u2019s 2024 avant-garde slasher, in terms of its willingness to patiently follow its lead character through its various horrors, though I doubt there will be as much disappointment as there was when that shit hit horror fans. But, like that feature, it\u2019s hypnotic in the way that it unfolds, grabbing your attention from the first frame and keeping you locked in, legitimately concerned for this (fictional) dog\u2019s safety while you\u2019re entranced with the craft. The film\u2019s crowning achievement \u2014 the astonishing performance Leonberg managed to coax out of Indy \u2014 wouldn\u2019t be nearly as effective if there weren\u2019t a brilliantly blocked and shot feature surrounding it. This is a genuinely beautiful movie, with steady camerawork (I can only imagine how long it took to storyboard) and purposeful, intelligent editing. Yet it\u2019s not particularly self-indulgent as, given the nature of the shoot, they really couldn\u2019t afford to be \u2013 it\u2019s 73 minutes long for good reason as, beyond concerns of practicality, it doesn\u2019t want to wear out its welcome. Leonberg doesn\u2019t have time for cutesy bullshit: he only wants to process exactly what makes up the bizarre and magical bond between human and animal in loving, effective metaphor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonberg\u2019s ethos behind the project is fascinating \u2013 using supernatural evil to highlight the almost otherworldly affection shown to Todd by his pet: a creature who will never, ever let him down, no matter what happens or how he feels. The whole \u201cwe don\u2019t deserve dogs\u201d saying can be tritely rendered into a greeting card or plaque you can buy at a TJ Max, but there\u2019s truth to it. For all of the miserable things about human existence, the fact that there are creatures \u2013 be it a dog or a cat or a rabbit or hamster or so on and so forth \u2013 whose care for us extends beyond the fact that we feed them and give them attention acts as a strange counter to the idea that our existence is irredeemable, that we\u2019re damned wretches unworthy of love by some inherent flaw. It\u2019s a relationship that can transcend death, after all, given that dogs have fantastic <\/em>memories \u2014 a surreal devotion that slips beyond a lifetime, often being more than we\u2019re worth but precisely what we need. It\u2019s in this meaning that Good Boy<\/em> stops being merely a good gimmick picture (isn\u2019t that what all cinema is, anyhow?), and turns into sublime, poetic horror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My greatest fear when walking into Ben Leonberg\u2019s Good Boy was that it would ultimately turn out to be like Jason Eisener\u2019s segment in V\/H\/S 2, which was a thoroughly nasty little bit of found-footage that ends in a (perhaps appropriately, given the subject matter) apocalyptic fashion that nevertheless had me wanting to put three rounds into the screen like I was Elvis trying to change the channel. That short \u2014 an outgrowth of the \u201clet\u2019s mount a camera to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":10042439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19452],"tags":[12823,20180,35927,24029,26409,8141,21215],"class_list":["post-10042438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-filmtv","tag-dogs","tag-film-review","tag-good-boy","tag-good-movies","tag-header","tag-horror","tag-shudder"],"yoast_head":"\n'Good Boy' Review: A doggone great horror picture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"'Good Boy' is a loving tribute to the bond between dog and human, and it's also an engrossing horror movie. That's a win-win in our book.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Good Boy' Review: A doggone great horror picture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"'Good Boy' is a loving tribute to the bond between dog and human, and it's also an engrossing horror movie. That's a win-win in our book.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vanyaland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/vanyaland617\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nick.johnston\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-03T15:15:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-03T15:15:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/redefined.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/03105812\/goodboy_ifcfilms.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Johnston\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@vanyaland617\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@vanyaland617\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Johnston\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/\",\"name\":\"'Good Boy' Review: A doggone great horror picture\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/redefined.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/03105812\/goodboy_ifcfilms.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-03T15:15:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-03T15:15:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/#\/schema\/person\/382699f107013e4bf11f10a038a7264b\"},\"description\":\"'Good Boy' is a loving tribute to the bond between dog and human, and it's also an engrossing horror movie. That's a win-win in our book.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redefined.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/03105812\/goodboy_ifcfilms.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/redefined.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/03105812\/goodboy_ifcfilms.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1280,\"caption\":\"IFC Films\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"‘Good Boy’ Review: A doggone great horror picture\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/\",\"name\":\"Vanyaland\",\"description\":\"The proven voice in music since 2013\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/#\/schema\/person\/382699f107013e4bf11f10a038a7264b\",\"name\":\"Nick Johnston\",\"description\":\"Vanyaland Film Editor\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nick.johnston\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/author\/nick-johnston\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Good Boy' Review: A doggone great horror picture","description":"'Good Boy' is a loving tribute to the bond between dog and human, and it's also an engrossing horror movie. That's a win-win in our book.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Good Boy' Review: A doggone great horror picture","og_description":"'Good Boy' is a loving tribute to the bond between dog and human, and it's also an engrossing horror movie. That's a win-win in our book.","og_url":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/","og_site_name":"Vanyaland","article_publisher":"http:\/\/facebook.com\/vanyaland617","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nick.johnston","article_published_time":"2025-10-03T15:15:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-03T15:15:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/redefined.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/03105812\/goodboy_ifcfilms.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nick Johnston","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@vanyaland617","twitter_site":"@vanyaland617","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nick Johnston","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/","url":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/","name":"'Good Boy' Review: A doggone great horror picture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/redefined.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/03105812\/goodboy_ifcfilms.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-03T15:15:24+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-03T15:15:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/#\/schema\/person\/382699f107013e4bf11f10a038a7264b"},"description":"'Good Boy' is a loving tribute to the bond between dog and human, and it's also an engrossing horror movie. That's a win-win in our book.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/redefined.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/03105812\/goodboy_ifcfilms.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/redefined.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/03105812\/goodboy_ifcfilms.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"caption":"IFC Films"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/10\/03\/good-boy-review-a-doggone-great-horror-picture\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"‘Good Boy’ Review: A doggone great horror picture"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/","name":"Vanyaland","description":"The proven voice in music since 2013","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/#\/schema\/person\/382699f107013e4bf11f10a038a7264b","name":"Nick Johnston","description":"Vanyaland Film Editor","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nick.johnston"],"url":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/author\/nick-johnston\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10042438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10042438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10042438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10042439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10042438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10042438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10042438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}