Co-written and directed by Ben Leonberg, Good Boy is a horror film from a dog’s perspective. Although it may struggle to be a fully-fledged feature, this refreshing exploration of fear is an admirable effort all the same.

Moving into a new home haunted by dark entities, a man and his dog must work together to survive the threats surrounding them. Indy (a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever) stars as himself. He is joined by Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman and Larry Fessenden.

The experience of Good Boy evokes similar emotions to those of 2024’s In a Violent Nature, a picture told from the perspective of a slasher villain. Both offer an inventive approach, but they do leave you wondering if the ideal avenue might have been a short film, given the limitations of their concept. But while In a Violent Nature is often quite boring, Good Boy is mostly entertaining for its 73-minute runtime, proving it to be a superior movie all in all.

With solid direction, Ben Leonberg makes the most of the limited script, presenting effective scares filled with well-developed tension. As the star of the show, Indy is impressive as an animal actor on screen. It is hard not to fall in love with him, which quickly raises the stakes during moments of terror. Even though many sequences are similar, they are always interesting thanks to the canine character at the forefront of the picture.

Good Boy won’t be the best film of the year, but its clever use of tropes allows it to be a solid effort all around. A movie like this is proof that the horror genre can offer unique stories amidst a sea of cliches.