Horror movies have come a long since the days of The Exorcist, Rose Mary’s Baby, and Dawn of The Dead. There are so many different styles of horror films these days. Pov is one specific style the horror genre have adopted as their own. The Blair With Project and the Paranormal Activity Franchise have shown that this can be an effective style to use to tell a good horror story. Good Boy, in particular, is from the point of view of a retriever named Indy. 

Todd (Larry Fassenden) is a man who moves from his current home to a country house. He takes his loyal dog companion Indy with him. When he gets to the country home, some weird things start to happen. His dog notices some unusual things going on around them that his master can’t see. Everything the dog sees the viewers see as well. It’s very unsettling, to say the least. The dog cries and whines, and that is when the audience knows something isn’t right. He is very ingenuitive regarding how he’s able to get out of some situations he is in. I was genuinely worried about him many times during the film.

With a movie that uses this specific style of filmmaking, it has to create other methods to keep the audience who is watching engaged. The visual effects that show things the audience doesn’t exactly understand. There is shadowing and colored lights and blacklisting that help to create the visuals the director Ben Leonberg is looking for. Add these visuals with a genuine sense of death in the air, and you have a POV movie that most anybody will love, including dog lovers. I cared about this dog as soon as I saw him, so I was already in on this story before I heard the concept. 

Film involving animals or in this came a dog can be hit or miss.  More often than not, dog movies can pull at the heartstrings, and so they can be very emotional. Most people start to care about the animal, or dog, by the end of the film. That’s the case here as well. Once I saw this cute orange retriever, I was instantly hooked on him. He reminded me of an old dog I had a few years back that passed away from old age. My dog was named buddy because she, yes it was a she not a he,was my buddy. I didn’t name her, though. Dogs can have that pull on a person. The dog, Indie, named after the famous film character of the same name, in this film, had a pull on me. I cared about his every move and action he made. I never wanted to see anything happen to him during the course of the film.

There was a fantastic vibe in this movie, and all the actions, including running, jumping, and barking at various things, were combined in that. Director have said that in the past, kids and animals are the hardest things to work with in Hollywood because you never know what their going to do or not do. You can’t control them like you can control adults. Tis dog seemed to obey every command he was given. He did some amazing stunts as well as acted perfectly for the scenarios he needed to. I was genuinely amazed by how incredible he was on screen.

The actor who played the dog’s master wasn’t exactly my cup of tea in the context of the film. He was a bit unruly towards his dog, and that bothered me quite a bit. I understand it’s all part of the story, but it bothered me. I am not a fan of bullying of any kind, whether it’s against a human or animal kind. The situation made him !t the way he did. This was a dark scario, and it’s weird that the director was able to achieve the perspective he was going for. Dogs have a sixth sense, and that part of how this dog thought showed out perfectly on screen. The mix between his ability to see what wasn’t there and the dark forbidding  scenario was well implemented and thought out in the movie.

Good Boy is a statement we all use to describe our dogs from time to time. When it’s finally used in the film, it’s a worthwhile moment. As a whole, this was a fantastic indie horror film from the point of view of this adorable dog Indy. He did everything I hoped he’d do from running,  jumping, and barking whenever necessary. I wanted him as my dog so bad.  He instantly won me over. I was always going to be a big fan of him ever since I saw his face. I’m a sucker for animal movies, and this one was no different from many others I’ve seen. The creative take the director used to tell the story was a great take on the POV horror film. I hope as many people as possible will have a chance to see this film and fall in love with Indie like I did.

4 ½ stars 

Dan Skip Allen