Good Boy
- 5 minutes ago
- 3 min read
GOOD BOY turns out to be a one-trick puppy, but moments of the trick are undeniably entertaining.
The definition of a low-budget horror entry, Writer/Director Ben Leonberg shot the film over 400+ days, capturing natural moments of his own dog Indy on film.
And damned if Indy isn't great as the center of the tale. I can't imagine the patience it took to film the puppy for that many months to get the exact right expression/whimper or bark, but Leonberg and Indy nail all the key moments.
We meet Todd (Shane Jensen) but only from Indy's viewpoint, mostly from the neck down, with faces of all the characters mostly in shadows until the finale. Todd is just out of rehab. His caring but annoying sister Vera (Arielle Friedman) has found him almost comatose, his nose dripping blood as Indy hovers nearby, whimpering.
Todd inexplicably decides that the best place to go when he gets out of rehab is to their late Grandpa's haunted/cursed cabin. At least that's how Vera describes it.
Indy agrees with her. He doesn't want to enter the Cabin in the Woods and almost immediately, the camera follows him as he crouches down by dark spaces just past the reach of the ambient light.
Indy is especially fond of a room in the attic, where he'll sit and stare at nothing for long stretches of time.
Leonberg gets several things in his film very right.
He pays off our patience. How many times have you watched a low budget horror feature that's all tension and no payoff? He definitely lets those spirits and creepy beings come out of the shadows, selectively. From my perspective, just the right amount.
As the bumps in the night, apparitions of another dog in the house and quiet barks and voices elevate their frequency, the film falls into a bit of a repetitive loop, serving up the same basic sequence over and over with slight variations.
What happened to Grandpa?
What's up with that neighbor?
I liked the way that Todd's discovery of Grandpa's many, many VHS tapes set up an even bigger part of the mystery, but if feels like there was a lot more tension to be built out of watching snippets of those VHS tapes, peeling back the mystery. "Lee Cronin's The Mummy" recently served up exactly how to deal with a terrifying old VHS that holds horrific secrets.
That feels very fumbled here.
At just 72 minutes long, there was time to tell that part of the story, but you have to also credit Leonberg with making the absolute most of his $70,000 budget. That's the catering budget for a week on many Hollywood productions.
Indy is fantastic. That dog expresses more hesitation, curiosity, terror and bravery than plenty of his human counterparts.
Leonberg's cinematography is pretty damn good too. Once I got over thinking about how Muppet Babies only shows adults from the neck up too.......
The fact that GOOD BOY made over $8 million on that budget should tee up Leonberg for something much grander next time out. Based on this mildly scary appetizer, the horror entree should be pretty tasty.
He has said that the thematic inspiration for this film was "Poltergeist" and the way the dog in that film sensed the spirits long before the Freelings had a clue.
I get it. This is no "Poltergeist" but it's no dog either.
I'll give it a C+, with panting anticipation of what Leonberg does next.
If you are a dog lover, bump that up to a B-.
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