by Samuel Nichols, Contributing Writer
Good Boy is spiritually in the same genre as In a Violent Nature and Presence: horror movies that follow the perspectives of non-humans who are involved in a story. While the first two entries are haunting presences as either an unkillable monster (à la Michael Myers) or a ghost haunting a house (any of the B.S. Conjuring movies), Good Boy follows a beautiful dog just trying to protect its owner. It’s a new point of view on a tried and true movie formula. Who hasn’t seen the dog bark into the dark where the monster is lurking? Here’s the premise: The house is haunted. Indy the dog (played by himself) is more aware of the haunting than his owner Todd (Shane Jensen). Remember: Indy is our protagonist. Not Todd.
To put a few things into context, Indy is not a trained dog. He is literally just a dog owned by the director of the movie, Ben Leonberg. There is not some genius off set who has spent years teaching this dog tricks. So when Indy needs to run or jump or make a noise, Leonberg would have to figure out how to get him to do that. Entice Indy with a treat or move a ball around on a stick to get him to move. Think of all the ingenuity the crew has to have to get the pup to do what you want. Those are the only tricks I can think of. Imagine how often they had to reshoot or reset for a shot because Indy got distracted or didn’t quite do what was wanted. So I have to applaud the hard work from Leonberg and his crew, as well as the obedience of the titular good boy.
I was already pretty impressed by the movie when the credits started to roll. But then Leonberg showed up on screen and started to elaborate on the process of how this movie was made. Particularly, he explained how much he had to rely on the Kuleshov effect to convey the emotions of the story. For example, if he wanted you to think Indy was frightened, he had to darken the mood of the set and focus in on the fear. And I have to say it worked, because this whole time, I was convinced the dog was terrified in this house. The filmmaking and the editing are such that you really believe Indy both understands and fears the evil that is in this house.
Perhaps Indy knows that truth more than his owner Todd does. Because there is not a single memorable moment of him. Seriously, I had to Google the cast to remember what the main human’s name was. But I think that might be on purpose, because there is not a single shot of this movie where a human character has their face unobscured. Whether it’s the framing of the camera, a mask, or how someone wears their hair, you can never quite make out a human face. In the moment, I found it fairly distracting, but as I think back on it, the decision was a wise one to keep the audience’s attention on Indy.
Think about it: The whole marketing of this movie is about the dog. He is billed as the main character. Pushing everyone else out of frame keeps the blinders on the audience and the focus on Indy. And it’s done with good reason. All of the best scenes are just Indy by himself. Perhaps my favorite moments of Indy, though, are when he has his own nightmares. That really gets you rooting for him. No dog should be constantly frightened by whatever is going on in this house. So being right there with Indy in an otherworldly space fills us with righteous anger and scares us.
Another thing to like about this movie: It is a brisk 73 minutes. I kid you not, this movie is shorter than some episodes of Stranger Things. Normally I am not one to quibble about a movie being too long, because hopefully it is in service of the story. But there certainly are times when perhaps we focused a little too much on the b-plot. There is no such time wasted here.
Short like a dog’s memory, well-crafted, and led by the best boy on the big screen, Good Boy has everything going for it.
Rating: Liked It
Good Boy is currently playing in theaters
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