Good Boy is what we are reviewing this week on Horror Movie Talk. Also, I will be saying good boy a lot on this episode. Stay tuned.

Synopsis

When his owner Todd moves into rural home, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever named Indy starts noticing strange shapes in the shadows. Told completely through Indy’s point of view, we see as supernatural forces increasingly grow more menacing and seem to affect Todd. Indy proceeds to stare blankly and do very little to warn Todd, but who can criticize that face?

Review of Good Boy

Good Boy’s charm relies solely on its premise of being a supernatural horror movie told completely from a dog’s POV. It’s the type of premise that entices you, and makes you wonder how they are going to pull it off. In this case, they barely make a case for a feature length movie. 

The highest praise I can give this film is that it is a spiritual successor to Paranormal Activity. There are a lot of lingering shots that exploit the Eye Spy/Where’s Waldo genre of that franchise. 

Another good aspect  is the score, which is perfectly sparse and effective for the mood of the film.

While it is engaging to look at a cute dog for a while, the lack of compelling plot developments makes it feel like a short film stretched to its breaking point. 

The film is filled with similar scenes of Indy seeing figures in the darkness creeping towards him interspersed with some genuinely good jump scares. All the while, Todd is getting sicker and more of an asshole to Indy throughout.

The implied explanations for the haunting and Todd’s decline are many and non-committal. It could be a cursed house, or environmental factors. Or maybe that giant entryway into hell in the basement. Or it could just be cancer and the specter of death. Unfortunately the film never really lands on one and leaves them all open to interpretation.

However, the regular expectations for hollywood polish should be tempered with the fact that this film was never really meant for a theatrical wide release. In reality, this is an extremely high quality low budget independent film that performed so well at festivals that it earned a wide release. If this was only released on streaming, it would be declared a hidden gem, but in the bright lights next to big budget releases, this film is outclassed.

All that being said I do love the underlying narrative technique and did enjoy watching Indy’s exploits. The hour and 12 minute runtime does feel long at times, but somehow I am still left wanting more, and hope someone picks up this gimmick and makes a truly great dog POV horror movie.

Score

6/10