Have you ever been watching a horror movie and found yourself struggling to sympathize with the protagonist? Maybe they're a bit selfish, maybe they're a bit dumb, maybe there's just something about them that gets in the way of you caring whether or not the masked killer/ghost/demon/etc gets them or not. Now a follow up question. Have you ever been watching a horror movie with a dog? Where even though the dog is not at the heart of things you find yourself constantly in fear of anything happening to said dog? I think you can see where I'm going with this.
Ben Leonberg's directorial debut Good Boy follows Indy, an adorable retriever whose owner Todd is suffering from a chronic lung disease. After a trip to the hospital, Todd moves himself and Indy out of the city and into his late grandfather's empty house in the woods. Todd's sister Vera is concerned about both his health and the house's history, believing it to be cursed or haunted and what ultimately led to their grandfather's death. Todd ignores her though, leaving him and Indy alone in this haunted house in the woods, where only Indy can see the specters looming amidst the shadows.
I have to start things out by saying that Indy gives one of the best performances of the year. Yes, he is a dog, but I promise you he is acting his furry little ass off. Dogs are notoriously hard to work with when it comes to filmmaking, but either Leonberg is the world's greatest trainer of Indy is just made for the cameras. Indy brings out all the emotions, whether they be joy, sadness, or a whole lot of fear, and he does such a good job you honestly forget that dogs don't know how to act. I was blown away the entire film by how well he not only goes about the beats of the film, a task that I'd think hard enough on its own, but how on point all of his actions and emotions are. It feels silly to be hyping up a dog performance this much, but I was genuinely astounded by how well done the film was in that respect, and with the premise focusing entirely on the good boy at the middle of it Indy needed to deliver the goods. Pretty much every other actor is shown with their faces offscreen, making Indy the undeniable focus, and he delivers a true star making turn.
Aside from the incredible dog performance, this is also a pretty well crafted horror movie. I do think it benefits from a short runtime, as even at a short 73 minutes I found it starting to drag near the end, but Leonberg still delivers a consistently spooky and engaging watch. You don't have to worry about the dog dying, but despite that the film is surprisingly quite sad, making it a bit of a heavy watch despite getting to watch a cute dog the whole time. What impressed me most about Leonberg's direction is in how he captured the hauntings going on. There are a ton of fun tricks of light and camerawork to create all kinds of eerie shadows that will have you on edge. He even manages some pretty impressive jump scares, not something I expected from a film like this. You probably won't be blown away from the filmmaking, but it's very solid from start to finish. If you're a horror fan looking for something short and spooky, this absolutely fits the bill. You won't see a better dog performance than Indy's, and that alone is worth the price of admission. 3.5/5
Comments
Post a Comment