1428 Elm recently wrote an article about Good Boy, which tells a haunted house story entirely through the eyes of a dog. Good Boy did quite well on the film festival circuit, and Shudder subscribers will soon be able to see it for ourselves. The AMC Networks-owned horror streaming platform announced on May 1 that it is has acquired rights to Good Boy for all its English speaking territories. That includes the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Good Boy’s very unique take on spooky horror puts its focus on a dog named Indy, who moves with his human Todd into Todd’s family home in the country. Once there, Indy begins to hear and see things that Todd cannot (including a ghost dog), and must face his fears to save his beloved human from the evil forces that are trying to draw him in.
Ben Leonberg co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Cannon, and Leonberg’s own dog Indy (a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever) plays the leading role in Good Boy. Not only that, Leonberg and his wife Kari Fischer filmed in their own home on a closed set over a three-year time span that included more than 400 days of shooting. To get the best, most natural performance from Indy, they stood in for the human characters in his scenes.
The human actors involved with Good Boy include horror icon Larry Fessenden (Blackout, Wendigo) and Stuart Rudin (The Silence of the Lambs).
When Good Boy premiered at SXSW to a sold-out audience, it was named Critic’s Pick by IndieWire, which called it “one of the year’s scariest movies.” Indy himself was awarded the “Howl of Fame” award for Best Canine Performance.
At Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, it was expanded from to three theaters from the original one, and won an Honorable Mention for Scariest Feature Film.
Emily Gotto, Senior VP of Shudder Acquisitions and Productions (who worked on the acquisition of Good Boy) had this to say: “Ben Leonberg’s debut is a singular experience in perspective-driven horror. Told entirely through the eyes of Indy, a devoted dog whose terror and determination to save his human become our own, the film delivers a haunting and emotional experience that introduces a surprising standout performance from Indy and a strikingly assured first feature from Leonberg."
There has been no announcement of whether or not Good Boy will be released in theaters (though I personally hope it is) or when it will be available to stream on Shudder. 1428 Elm will keep you in the loop, though!