Good Boy

Mr. Pat

4 hours ago

4 min read

Hello, one and all! Welcome to the 16th edition of Mr. Pat's 31 Days of Halloween! Since there are a lot of new people here, I wanted to clarify how I rate movies. I'm not a film critic, so I mainly judge films by how much they entertain me. They also get extra points if they scare me. I'm not talking about jump scares either. Those are easy, and I jump at everything. Now, that's not to say I don't appreciate good filmmaking, but for me, I'm not going to overlook being bored. Horror should never be boring.

A little about me... I am a news producer for a local TV station in Toledo, Ohio. I have two self-published horror novels on Amazon: Camping with the Dead and Ready or Not, Here I am. I'm a big Notre Dame fan; I'm married, we have two kids and if you couldn't guess, I love all things horror. So, without further ado, let's talk about...

Good Boy (2025)

Two years ago, I reviewed the werewolf movie, Bad Moon. It was based on a book called Thor, which was told entirely from the dog's perspective. I made mention of that in the review, and here's what I said... "I know you can't do a movie through the eyes of the dog, but I find that premise a lot more interesting than the straightforward story we ended up with."

I always admit when I'm wrong, so let me say this: I was dead wrong! And Good Boy is all the proof I need. The movie starts with an emergency. A very good boy named Indy can only watch while his best friend, Todd, is having a medical emergency. He's slumped over on a chair while drops of blood fall onto his phone. Thankfully, his sister, who has been hounding him, comes over to find him in this state and whisks him away from the hospital.

From there, we get home video clips of Todd and Indy, starting when he was a very good and cute puppy, to different stages of growing and finally, video of Todd coming out of the hospital, much to Indy's delight. This whole scene shows you the bond these two have for each other. Todd doesn't have a girlfriend or really anything else. All he has is his sister, Vera, and Indy, and it seems like he much prefers Indy to anyone else.

Out of the hospital, Todd decides he's had enough of New York City and moves into his grandfather's old place in the woods to get away, but in actuality, he probably would rather die in solitude. Once there, it doesn't take long for Indy to notice things are off and that some malevolent entity seems to bestalking Todd. As time goes by, that thing starts becoming more comfortable with making itself known.

I can't talk enough about how blown away I am that this movie exists. It is a movie, literally from the perspective of a dog. We get so many low-angle shots to give you Indy's point of view, and what's impressive is that we don't get any verbalization from Indy. Indy's inner dialogue is never heard. All we get from him are whines, barks, head tilts and facial expressions. Indy, played by the director's dog is, and it's a weird thing for me to type, actually a good actor. There are not multiple dogs for different scenes, and it's not a trained dog either; it is literally the director's real-life pet. Despite that, Indy does facial reactions better than a lot of actual actors. Indy doesn't talk, obviously, so all we, the audience, get comes from Indy's face, and it's very expressive; there's no ambiguity of what he's feeling at any moment. On top of being a really good actor, Indy is so stinking cute! You see this dog and all it's going through, and you just want to squeeze him!

One of the many things I liked: you never really see the humans' faces until the very end, and the choice is surprisingly effective. The faces are either obscured with shadow, blurry or just out of frame. It was a little distracting at first, but I realized it makes sense. This is a movie about a dog; the human characters are secondary. I like that the movie keeps all the focus on Indy; the people are there, but they're just background objects, things to move the plot forward. I genuinely love the way this movie was put together.

It took me a little bit to fully grasp what was going on and what everything meant, but once it clicked for me, it upped my enjoyment of the movie. There are so many things that I loved but can't get into now because this movie takes your emotions on a bit of a ride. Indy is just all kinds of adorable, and any time he's in danger, scared or sad, it doesn't just pull on your heartstrings; it yanks with all its might. Watching, I didn't want Indy to be OK; I needed him to be OK. Granted, I hate when any dog dies in a movie, but him getting hurt shattered me, because like the movie title said, he was a very good boy.

The final act is really good as well. Throughout the movie, whatever ailment is affecting Todd continues to get worse, and it gets to the point that even he realizes he doesn't have much time left. Dealing with his illness, he gets cold and mean to his sister and poor Indy, and as the movie gets to the conclusion, no matter what happens, Indy never hesitates; he desperately tries to save Todd from the thing stalking them. Good Boy doesn't come out right and say what it is, but there are conversations throughout that point out what it is if you're paying attention. The climax is built up so well that when it does finally hit, and the pieces start to fit together, it leaves you oddly satisfied. It was an effective way to end the movie, and I loved the idea of who was helping Indy throughout the movie.