A horror pic told from the perspective of a heroic pooch, Good Boy premiered its official trailer — and we’d argue that perhaps Best Boy is a more apt title. In the frightening first-look clip, a caring canine displays fear, worry and care with aptly timed barks and whines as he attempts to protect his loved ones.
Per the logline for the supernatural thriller from AMC Networks’ IFC Films (now rebranded to Independent Film Company), “A loyal dog moves to a rural family home with his owner Todd, only to discover supernatural forces lurking in the shadows. As dark entities threaten his human companion, the brave pup must fight to protect the one he loves most.”
Helmed by Ben Leonberg, who co-wrote alongside scribe Alex Cannon, the movie aims to flip the script on the haunted house genre, perhaps bringing to mind another recent entry, Steven Soderbergh’s Presence (2024), a psychological thriller told from the eyes of a watchful, eerie home.
Starring Larry Fessenden, Arielle Friedman, Shane Jensen, Anya Krawcheck, Stuart Rudin and Leonberg’s trusted puppy Indy, the project was acquired by Shudder for distribution in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand following its premiere at SXSW in March, as Deadline previously reported exclusively.
Following warm reception at its sold-out premiere at SXSW (and the “Howl of Fame” award for Best Canine Performance for Indy), Good Boy continued on the festival circuit at Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, where it expanded from one to three screens to satisfy audience demand, earning an honorable mention for Scariest Feature Film. The film was also screened at Calgary Underground Film Festival.
“I think everybody who has had a pet has wondered or maybe worried why their dog was barking at nothing or staring at empty corners. We kind of wanted to explore that as just a core engine of the movie and spin it into a haunted house movie,” Leonberg told Deadline at SXSW Studio. “They say don’t work with kids or animals for a reason … the solution to that challenge was to build a production entirely around him.”
As such, Leonberg and his wife Kari Fischer, who also served as producer, adapted their own home and acted as stand-ins for three years to accommodate Indy’s production schedule. In all, production tallied 400 days and demanded a lot of patience, given the fact that Indy is not a trained animal actor; the end result is what Deadline’s Katie Campione described as an “incredibly realistic and haunting portrayal of a dog’s reaction to his house taking on a life of its own.”
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