A loyal dog moves to a rural family home with his owner, only to discover supernatural forces lurking in the shadows. As dark entities threaten his human companion, the brave pup must fight to protect the one he loves most.

‘Good Boy’ is a supernatural horror movie directed by Ben Leonberg in his directorial debut, with a central conceit that certainly makes it an original production. That conceit is that the ‘star’ of the movie is Leonberg’s own dog Indy, with the strange happenings that occur on screen seen through his eyes. The premise involves Indy and his owner Todd (Shane Jensen) moving to Todd’s late grandfather’s house in the woods, with the hope that the fresh air will help to improve Todd’s chronic lung condition. Little do they know that the house is haunted and will create more problems than it will solve for the duo.

This is a cleverly made if slight horror movie, with the narrative only stretching as far as 73 minutes, which to be honest was plenty. Its main selling point is clearly the unique and ambitious approach, which works remarkably well, in large part because Indy is incredibly good and compelling. It’s unusual, but Leonberg has certainly managed to draw an impressive ‘performance’ from his dog, who sells every reaction and every moment. That aside, the story is pretty light, haunted cabin in the woods fare, and I was never really gripped by it.

I actually found it had some resemblance to Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Presence’ from earlier this year, which also found a unique perspective for a traditional horror setting, but that film had a much better story and a more satisfying payoff than we get here, noting Soderbergh is a seasoned traveller of genres. In this case, it does have Indy though, and it really is a performance that has to be seen to be believed, but it’s a shame the film around the dogs performance is fairly forgettable.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Ben Leonberg

Starring: Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman, Larry Fessenden and Indy the Dog

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt35521922/