Good Boy is a 2025 American supernatural horror film directed by Ben Leonberg in his feature directorial debut, co-written by Leonberg and Alex Cannon. Starring Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman, Larry Fessenden and Leonberg's real-life dog Indy in the titular role, the film follows a haunted house from the perspective of a dog.
The film had its world premiere at the 2025 South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 10, 2025. It is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on October 3 by Independent Film Company (IFC) and Shudder.[4]
Good Boy was independently produced by Leonberg and Kari Fischer, credited under a production company they named What's Wrong With Your Dog? The film features a distinct visual approach, often framing scenes from the dog's eye level to emphasize Indy's perspective. For the starring role, Leonberg used his own dog Indy, who received significant praise for a performance that conveyed emotion without dialogue or CGI enhancements.[5] The film runs approximately 72 minutes and was shot on location in New Jersey.[6]
On May 1, 2025, Shudder acquired the distribution rights of the film to the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.[10] The film is set to release in cinemas on October 3, 2025.[4] Earlier screenings in other regions, such as the Philippines started on October 1, 2025, under 888 Films International.[11]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 33 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Good Boy is a visually striking, emotionally devastating horror film that eschews genre conventions to deliver a uniquely haunting and conceptually ambitious experience."[12]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[13]
Critics praised both the concept and execution with Rafael Motamayor of IndieWire described it as "one of the best horror films so far this year."[14] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter noted that "what gives the film its emotional power is Indy's unfailing loyalty to his beloved owner".[1] Indy's performance was especially lauded, earning him the inaugural "Howl of Fame" award at SXSW.
Accolades
SXSW Film Festival 2025: Howl of Fame Award – Best Canine Performance (Indy)[15]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
