Once again, innovation strikes in the horror genre with Good Boy (now streaming on Hulu, in addition to VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video), a clever little thriller told entirely from the perspective of a dog. Director Ben Leonberg cast his own pup, Indy, in the title role, and goes so far as to speculate a bit about how a dog might see the world differently from humans – and it’s more than just butt-sniffing and Milk Bones. If you’ve ever wondered why your dog seems to be staring at nothing in the corner over there, well, Leonberg presents a theory, and it’s pretty compelling.
GOOD BOY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: It doesn’t happen until fairly deep into the movie, but I need to declare this right away: The It’s Only A Dream rug-pulling gimmick is only acceptable when it’s a dog dream. In fact, the dog in this story, Indy, sometimes experiences the world like he’s in a David Lynch film – things sometimes don’t make sense from our human POV. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here. Indy’s owner is Todd (Shane Jensen), who we first meet slumped over on the couch, unconscious and drooling blood. He appears to have some sort of chronic lung condition. Todd’s sister Vera (Arielle Friedman) takes him to the hospital, and even brings Indy for a visit. It’s worth noting that the camera tends to stay knee-high, and we rarely see a human’s unobscured face in the film. We see what Indy sees, or we watch Indy’s highly expressive eyes as he looks at things. What is he thinking? Well, go ahead, start your theorizin’.
After he gets out of the hospital, Todd relocates to his late grandfather’s house deep in the woods, on a what? Yes: A dark and stormy night. It’s a bit leaky over here, cozy over there, and creaky and creepy in plenty of places, especially the basement and the room that’s loaded with taxidermy. Gramps had a thing for stuffing animals, and making home movies; the place is stuffed…