Good Boy (2025) Parent Guide

Indy is a really good dog. His owner, Todd (Shane Jensen), on the other hand, could use some help – he suffers from chronic lung disease, for starters, but he also has a personality akin to sandpaper. Todd’s sister, Vera (Arielle Friedman), is worried about him, a feeling that intensifies when he packs up the dog, moves out to their dead grandfather’s purportedly haunted cabin in the woods, and more or less stops taking her calls.

Indy is not a fan of the new house. He can tell immediately that, yes, the house is very, very haunted, thank you very much. As proof that humans don’t deserve dogs, loyal Indy stays to look after Todd – but things are getting really creepy, really fast, and it doesn’t look like Todd is going to be around for long.

At the cost of mildly spoiling the ending, but hopefully improving your day, I’ll let you know right off the bat that yes, the dog survives the film. Now that’s off your mind, let’s get into the next order of business: Boy is this dog super cute. You’re not prepared for how cute this dog is. He’s adorable. His breed is the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, which is an adorable name. You should watch the movie just for him. I’m not kidding.

As far as the rest of the film is concerned, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The super-short runtime helps, since the film is mostly long shots of the cutest dog you’ve ever seen staring concernedly into dark corners and watching Todd cough up blood, and there’s only so much of that you can show an audience. The background plot which Indy overhears is a fairly standard horror flick, with Todd increasingly isolated, ill, and perturbed by the oddities of his new home. The film doesn’t really explain what’s going on, but since we see these events from Indy’s perspective, it works. You just get to be a little scared and confused right along with the most adorable dog in the world.

While Good Boy can actually be quite scary, there’s very little violence on screen. Indy gets shoved around once or twice, Todd spends a lot of time spitting blood, and there are some shots of long-dead animal remains. You can infer Todd’s offscreen drinking only by the presence of beer cans in his sink, and he lets off a little bit of profanity from time to time, but that’s about all you’ve got to worry about here. This is a PG-13 horror movie for anybody who can stand some skillfully crafted atmospheric tension and creepy imagery – and I mean anybody – because you’re going to want to see this dog. Did I mention how cute he is?

About author

Keith Hawkes

Keith Hawkes graduated from Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada with a degree in English and History. His interests are movies, American literature, science fiction, almost every kind of music, and museums. He enjoys criticizing films for fun - although he's okay with being paid for it.