Avis Metacritic

It’s easy to ascribe the success of Good Boy to the power of its canine star, but the film refuses to let Indy feel like a cheap gimmick.

If you’ve ever been a dog owner and you’ve ever been nervous about what’s out there in the shadows, then more than likely, you’ve appreciated the company of a good dog by your side. Good Boy gives you that feeling when you’re watching it, and quite frankly, there were a couple of times when I reached for my own dog to give her a reassuring scratch behind the ears.

This is assured horror filmmaking. Heartbreaking too: Anyone who’s held a pet as comfort from pain or despair should have tissues at hand.

Transcending its gimmick status within its opening stretch and only growing more resonant from there, it becomes that rare horror film you could recommend to people who hate the genre — the set pieces are well constructed, but their impact pales next to a haunting, moving story about a dog and his owner.

Leonberg shows so much promise, ultimately delivering a horror movie that not only has the scares but also a massive heart. However, it does also help that the movie is centered around a cute dog.

Good Boy works well enough on its own terms, managing to sustain sufficient tension throughout the course of its smartly concise 73-minute running time.

You’ll believe a dog can star in a horror movie with Good Boy, which makes the most of its high-concept approach of centering a haunted house story not on a man but on man’s best friend.

With its brisk runtime, the film wastes no time and, though it plays into genre tropes often, its premise is enough to make this film a compelling watch. The film ends up being surprisingly emotional thanks to its protagonist, though its lack of characterization of its human counterparts hurts the film's climax just a bit.

Indy is a delight who can do no wrong. Though the film around him is not always as assured, he is a star who has earned all the pets and treats a dog could dream of. After all the nightmares he had to endure this film, he more than deserves it.

A horror tale told from the perspective of a dog, Ben Leonberg’s Good Boy is the sort of film that was always destined to live and die by the strength of its central gimmick.