Good Boy

I have to admit, the premise instantly piqued my interest, but unique premises in horror aren't really that hard to come by. Even with being the most ridiculed film genre, you'll be hard pressed to find more interesting stories than those found in horror, and this one is no exception. But at one hour and 12 minutes, it's really unfortunate that the potential of the premise wasn't fully realized, although the end result was more than satisfactory.

We have a tale about a girl who meets a man on a dating app, and that man happens to have a pet dog who is a man in a suit. Everything seems pretty "normal" for most of the movie (or as normal as anyone with a pet human dog can be), until things take a turn and everything is flipped upside down. But why is it happening? Why is Frank a dog to begin with? So many unanswered questions, that an hour and some change did not give adequate time to have answered. As such, I was really going to write this movie off as wasted potential, until that ending.....

I've seen some creepy stuff in horror, but that ending sent a shiver down my spine. The films entire runtime was banking on that ending, and for that alone, it went from a forgettable film to a (dare I say) great one that people will be talking about for quite some time. There is no gore, very little violence, and no nudity, but the creepiness scale stays at a 10 throughout almost the entire film, and for that, it deserves at least a watch. True horror fans will surely appreciate it.

This is a lean, taut suspense film--only 80 minutes long, and more than half of that is truly suspenseful and unnerving. There are only four actors in the movie, and they all do an excellent job of seeming like real people with real motivations, blind spots, and flaws. For the most part, writer/director Viljar Bøe does an excellent job of showing us things that don't quite make sense and convincing us that it's not necessarily irrational or unreasonable. He creates a feeling akin to being seduced into a toxic relationship, where in hindsight you realize how abundant all the red flags were but in the moment you're willing to rationalize and excuse every individual one. If this is allegorical horror, then its allegory is for the poor "NTA" victims on the Reddit thread "Am I The A**H***?", who post detailed narratives of having been gaslit by psychopaths yet seem totally clueless about the blame not being their own.

That said, once the mystery is revealed about midway through the movie, the movie does lose a great deal of its suspense as characters quickly devolve into horror movie stereotypes. While the second half is disappointing, it's not so bad that it brings the whole film down--plus, the final moments are fresh and surprising enough that they'll guarantee the film's haunting images will stick with you for a few days. On top of that, Bøe's writing wisely leaves a lot of backstory unsaid, leaving audiences with plenty of queasy questions that they won't want to think about the answers to. A lesser film would feel the need to tidy things up more.

I'd recommend this for anyone who's into disturbing thrillers. The strong acting, masterful editing, and original premise are enough to earn a solid recommendation, even if the final act doesn't fully live up to the movie's promised potential. I eagerly anticipate Bøe's next film.

This small thriller tells the story of Sigrid, who meets this mysterious and charming guy on Tinder, only to discover that his dog is a real human being using a costume. Even with her instinct telling her to run away, she starts a relation with this guy.

Despite starting very strong at building the mystery and intrigue, by the third act you will see the same clichés of every thriller and horror movie that really ruin the atmosphere and logic. Once you see this, you can really anticipate how will end, and it ends very stupid.

The good thing is that is a very short movie so I would still recommend it to watch it at least one time.

Um... what did I just watch? No, seriously-what did I just watch? I had a feeling this was going to be a weird ride just from reading the summary-a man keeping another man as a pet dog while trying to start a relationship-but somehow, it was even more bizarre than I expected.

This is a tough one to rate because, on the one hand, the acting was great, and the film itself was really well made. But on the other hand... the story was just so unsettling. I feel genuinely uncomfortable after watching it, and that's only happened to me once before-with Tusk. And now that I think about it, aside from the body mutilation in Tusk, the core concept is kind of similar-forcing someone to become an animal to satisfy some twisted fetish.

That said, I'll give this movie a six because, despite how disturbing it was, it was definitely unique and not something I'll be forgetting anytime soon. Oh, and one last thing-Ingrid was an absolute idiot. That is all.

I've watched Good Boy in Lisbon during the horror festival MotelX. I had some expectations because the whole idea of having someone dressing up as a dog called my attention while scrolling through the movie list.

The flick starts great - the cinematography, atmosphere, acting and humorous moments felt truly genuine and you could feel the audience feeling it as well.

It keeps you curious on why the hell this guy has a person in his house wearing a dog custom, and your imagination starts wondering if it's really a human or another "thing".

It develops pretty well and you can tell the moment when it all turns south, this is perhaps the part that I didn't enjoy so much. When we all knew what was going on, I felt the acting went a bit too much and not in the best way. In my opinion, it didn't reach that "insane" psychopath status that leaves actors in the best performance lists. Even though there were some good parts in it.

Overall, still one of the best horror flicks I've watched this year, much more interesting than most high budget movies out there. Someone mentioned it was Viljar Bøe 3rd movie, which is insane in my perspective, in a good way.