Directed by Ben Leonberg, Good Boy 2025 is a horror and thriller film with shades of comedy. Simply put, it’s a horror movie in POV via Indy.
Written by: Alex Cannon, Ben Leonberg
Starring: Indy the Dog, Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman, Larry Fessenden
Genre: Horror, Thriller – Haunted House
Language: English | Runtime: 73 min
Distribution: Vertigo Releasing (Website | FB: @VertigoReleasingUK | IG: @vertigoreleasing | TW: @VertigoRel | TT: @vertigoreleasing), IFC Films, and Shudder.
In Cinemas (UK & Ireland): 10 October 2025
Goog Boy was provided as a screener for review purposes.
Review – Good Boy (2025)
See the hidden section at the end of the review to find out the fate of all furry creatures.
A Horror Story Told Through a Wet Nose
Good Boy is one of those rare horror films where the “what if” hits you square in the chest: What if the haunted house was experienced from the dog’s point of view? Director Ben Leonberg isn’t just playing with a gimmick here; he’s weaponising it. The result is an atmospheric, 73-minute slow-burn that feels like The Sixth Sense crossed with Homeward Bound on a particularly stormy night.
Indy, a golden retriever mix with soulful eyes and Oscar-worthy whimpers, is our POV lens into the cursed family home where Todd (Shane Jensen) retreats after a vague but looming health diagnosis. The house is all shadow and negative space, the kind of mise-en-scène where even the unremarkable corners seem to breathe.
The Canine Cinematography and Sound Design of Good Boy
Leonberg’s cinematography embraces a low vantage point, often framing the world from knee-height, which not only reinforces the point-of-view shot but also creates a sense of vulnerability. Indy’s visual world is full of high-angle shots of his human. Low-lit corridors where the chiaroscuro lighting catches just enough of a moving shadow to make your skin crawl.
There’s a brilliant use of diegetic sound, creaking doors, distant cellar noises, and the faint click click of nails on wooden floors. It comes with a layered score that swaps traditional orchestration for woodwind sighs, wind, and low percussive gongs. It’s pure sound design as a tension-building device.
We get all the haunted house staples, lightning flashes revealing silhouettes, the cellar that “doesn’t smell right,” and the neighbour with a cryptic warning. But the cool thing about that is, they’re reframed through Indy’s reactions. His nightmare sequences (yes, the dog dreams) are a surrealism-laced highlight, blending whistling spectral voices with flickering shadows of unseen bodies.
While Todd dismisses the supernatural, we know from Indy’s unwavering terror that this isn’t anthropomorphic imagination. Dogs, after all, don’t gaslight themselves. There is enough of Indy’s fearful demeanour that empathy floods in before you even realise you care about the people within the story, too.
Verdict
Good Boy is a compact, inventive supernatural horror that earns its scares through mood, sound, and empathy rather than gore. By filtering the haunted house through a dog’s sensory world, Leonberg turns familiar tropes into something fresh, poignant, and quietly devastating. This is one for horror fans who appreciate ambience over body count, and for dog lovers who can handle a few ghostly barks.
Let’s not forget to mention the rest of the cast. Used to layer the backstory of Indy’s skin parents, Todd and his sister, Vera (Arielle Friedman), the supernatural element is held together by Larry Fessenden. Not completely explained, Grandpa went missing, and his body was never found. Fessenden plays the flashback through a VHS tape that Todd watches.
Good Boy is rated
4.5 Wet Noses Sniffing at the Void out of 5
More haunted stories? Watch any of these titles: Fianlly Alone (A Short Film) / I’ll Take your Dead and The Banishing
The section below contains discussion of the film’s ending and key reveals. Proceed if you’re fine with that.
Click to reveal ending spoilers
Todd succumbs to his illness in the house, his death mirrored in flashbacks of his grandfather’s final days. Indy is seen retreating from the house with another family member, the dark entity seemingly satisfied or dissipated. The ghost dog’s remains are revealed in the cellar — a tragic image that confirms the house’s long history of claiming both man and beast.Good Boy’s Ending and the Fate of the Ghost Dog
Lurking beneath the ghost story is a quieter horror, Todd’s illness. The film never names it outright, but the hints are fairly obtuse, suggesting a creeping inevitability. Whether the entity in the house is feeding on Todd’s decline or merely drawn to it is left ambiguous. The allegory is potent: Indy may be fighting not just for Todd’s life, but against the slow theft of it.
Click to find out if the dog in Good Boy dies at the end.
The Ending That Lingers
The final act hits hard. Yes, Indy survives. Yes, the house claims another life. And yes, the ghost dog’s fate is finally confirmed in a way that will stick with you longer than any jump scare. The last image, Indy’s head out of a car window, is both a breath of relief and a reminder of the weight he’s endured.
Indy, our four-legged hero, lives to wag another day. However, a ghost dog, Todd’s grandfather’s missing companion, is revealed to have died tragically before the events of the film. Sensitive viewers may wish to note this before watching.
“By filtering the haunted house through a dog’s sensory world, Good Boy turns familiar horror tropes into something fresh, poignant, and quietly devastating.”
Quote by Mother of Movies for Good Boy 2025
Watch Good Boy Trailer on Mother of Movies YouTube Channel
If you thought haunted house horror couldn’t break your heart, think again. Good Boy sneaks tragedy in through the eyes of Indy, a golden retriever who sees every shadow, hears every creak, and smells every ghost. It’s eerie, atmospheric, and quietly devastating, blending supernatural with the gut-punch of real human fragility. Watch it for the rare mix of haunting visuals, a canine POV we don’t often get in horror, and a final act that lingers long after the credits roll.
Good Boy
Director: Ben Leonberg
Date Created: 2025-03-08 18:32
4.5
Pros
- Visually stunning
- Unique and memorable
Cons
- You'll fall instantly in love with Indy and that will stress you out.
- Gut punch
