Movie Review: GOOD BOY

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: October 3rd, 2025 / 01:03 AM

GOOD BOY movie poster |©2025 IFC/Shudder

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Indy, Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman, Larry Fessenden, Stuart Rudin
Writers: Alex Cannon & Ben Leonberg
Director: Ben Leonberg
Distributor: IFC/Shudder
Release Date: October 3, 2025 (U.S.), October 10, 2025 (U.K.)

Here’s a tip for horror filmmakers: if you want the audience to spend every single second worried about your protagonist, make that character a dog.

In the case of GOOD BOY, this is Indy, a medium-sized mixed breed with great charisma and arguably the most soulful eyes in cinema.

In reality, Indy is the canine companion of director Ben Leonberg, who wrote the screenplay with Alex Cannon. This helps explain how Leonberg elicited such an expressive performance from a dog, who so far as he knows is just playing with his person.

Anyone who lives with a dog or a cat or other animal knows there are moments when they stare intently at apparently nothing, then often turn and run away. GOOD BOY decides the explanation for this is that they can see what we can’t – and what they see is scary.

In GOOD BOY, Indy (same name as the pooch who plays him; a quick film clip of Harrison Ford as Professor Jones specifies which Indy inspired this) is the loving dog of Todd (Shane Jensen). Todd has had Indy from puppyhood, as we see in flashbacks, and used to be great with his four-legged pal. But now Todd is having severe health issues and decides he’s going to move into the secluded woodland house left to him by his Grandpa (Larry Fessenden).

Todd’s illness is making him unpredictable and distant, much to the distress of his concerned sister Vera (Arielle Friedman). Indy doesn’t understand why Todd is being so unpredictable, giving scritchies one minute and putting the dog outside the next.

What Indy does know, but can’t communicate, is that there is a dark spectral figure menacing both dog and man. On his own, Indy investigates, but what can he do?

This last is a somewhat puzzling aspect of GOOD BOY for this admittedly literal-minded reviewer. Others have made metaphoric sense of it, but for some (like this reviewer), it’s a dilemma.

From some things Vera mentions, and old video footage of Grandpa, we gather the house is haunted, even though Todd stubbornly doesn’t want to believe it. If it seemed like the specter was Indy’s awareness of Todd’s sickness, that would apply, but within the film, the spirit is empirically real. Is it possessing Todd, or is his behavior due to his illness?

Indy can’t make the distinction, and neither can we. But since Todd is dying anyway (nothing to do with the ghost), what sort of danger does the specter pose to him? It does threaten Indy. Thematically, this fits, as Indy can’t possibly understand the difference. However, since GOOD BOY is presumably meant for human rather than canine audiences, we would like to understand.

As it is, we’re more focused on what could happen to Indy as a result of Todd’s actions, as well as Indy’s heartbreak and bewilderment when Todd is not his customary warm self.

While Indy is on camera much of the time, GOOD BOY is not shot from his actual point of view, but director Leonberg often adopts a low angle, so we’re watching from dog’s-eye level. This makes everything more mysterious and frightening.

Some people will revel in GOOD BOY’s ambiguities or arrive at their own deductions. Others may wish for more clarity.

Jensen is highly natural as Todd, and Friedman and Fessenden give excellent, understated support.

One thing is certain: whether or not his humans allow him another screen appearance, with Indy in GOOD BOY, a star is born.

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