Good Boy is fast becoming one of 2025’s most talked about movies, and the doggie horror already has a superb score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics loving this unique take on the haunted house flick.
The year kicked off with Presence, a scary movie told from the point of view of a ghost, and now there’s a similarly themed film coming soon and told from a canine’s POV.
Directed, co-produced, and co-written by Ben Leonberg, Good Boy finds a dog called Indy moving to the country with owner Todd, to live in a house where strange things are afoot. But while his human has no idea of the danger he’s in, the canine can see and hear horrors lurking around every corner.
Good Boy debuted at the SXSW Film Festival in March to great reviews, and received similarly positive reactions at the Fantasia and Overlook festivals, the best of which we’ve pulled together below.
What the critics are saying about Good Boy
Good Boy currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95%, based on 20 reviews thus far, making it one of the best reviewed movies of the year.
We’ve worked our way through those reactions, and here’s what the critics are saying:
The Hollywood Reporter writes: “What comes across most strongly, and gives the film its emotional power, is Indy’s unfailing loyalty to his beloved owner and his willingness do practically anything to protect him.”
Collider talks about tone: “One of the big reasons why Good Boy works as well as it does is that it takes itself fairly seriously. This isn’t a comedy or a parody, it’s genuinely unnerving during certain segments, especially as Indy and Todd watch strange old home movies featuring the latter’s late grandfather, or as the former is visited by the ghost of a dog named Bandit, where he’s equally entranced yet terrified of the four-legged spirit.”
Daily Dead pays compliment to the movie’s writers: “You’re a smart cookie, Ben Leonberg. How can I negatively review a dog-led haunted house movie? Good Boy is a layup for horror fans who adore their canine companions. Leonberg and co-writer Alex Cannon script a love letter to four-legged friends who lift our spirits, love us unconditionally and protect us from anything – including muddy basement entities.”
RogerEbert.com is all about the canine performance: “Whether down to Leonberg’s mastery of the camera, or his innate knowledge of his furry friend, or both, he ekes out an outstanding performance from Indy – it’s abstracted, wordless (no narration here), told entirely through cocked heads, ear twitches, sniffs, and his big, expressive eyes. It’s a staggering pet performance, one so nuanced it’s hard to believe he didn’t know he was in a movie.”
While there is the odd dissenting voice, with Pajiba stating: “Good Boy isn’t an entirely successful experiment, slamming more than once against the invisible fence that separates human beings from an incomprehensible creature, even as it’s trying its damndest to put us right there into its head. Still, as Todd and the film and the dog himself drags Indy into danger after danger, the movie does elicit plenty of emotional responses, and at its best it disorients us inside of that same unknowable space.”
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