Good Boy is torture porn for every person who has ever said “I don’t want to see that movie if the dog gets hurt.” It is the ultimate manipulative plot–one delivered from the POV (mostly?) of a dog–because you have the most helpless protagonist, literally incapable of expressing fear or pain or worry, who feels only pure love for his human friend who makes all the wrong decisions as a horror trope incarnate. This movie is a good example of the gender bent movie trope of “A white woman with a job would never find themselves in this situation,” typified by the 2018 movie Puzzle and satirized by the Netflix show staring Kristen Bell, The Woman Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.
Probably the most abusive form of the plot has to do with the way that Indy the dog gets trapped in the haunted house surrounded by shadowy malignant forces beyond his control or understanding because his human cannot be bothered to bring him along despite having done that for the entirety of his life otherwise. Without thumbs, Indy is not able to navigate the house–he can only kind of astral project for the sake of the plot which also is pretty unnerving.
There’s also this neighbor guy who keeps telling the dog to watch out for fox traps which sets the stage for the dog to get his foot stuck in a nasty trap which (spoilers) never materializes. Despite the fact that the movie bills itself on being different because of its unique POV, it cheats a lot through texposition. We spend a lot of time reading texts off of Indy’s owner’s phone to situate ourselves into his human problems, despite the fact that it has literally no effect on Indy’s understanding, which feels like a cheap way out of committing to the bit.
The movie ultimately makes for a really good five minute short film but cannot sustain a full ninety minutes. Because there’s only one speaking character, a lot of the movie is silent panning across rooms with creepy music in the background and not else, which wears you down and doesn’t reward your interest.
