‘Good Boy’ Brings Its Horrors and Canine Heroics to Shudder Next Week

Nearly everyone with a dog (or cat) has had an unsettling moment where their pet seems aware of something that’s not there, be it staring at a seemingly blank wall or reacting to a sound beyond the range of human frequencies. Ben Leonberg‘s Good Boy takes that eerie feeling and builds an entire movie around it, imagining a troubled man moving to a long-empty family home to recover from an illness—where his dog, played by Leonberg’s own pup Indy, starts to realize some restless spirits are also dwelling there.

As the nights grow colder, now’s the perfect time to pile on the couch with your own doggo and watch Good Boy—something made even easier by its arrival on Shudder November 21. The movie takes place deep in a damp, isolated forest, where creepy vibes lurk in the darkness. Ideal November viewing, in other words.

In an interview with io9 earlier this year, Leonberg explained where he had the initial inspiration for Good Boy, and it goes back to another famous acting pup: Poltergeist‘s E. Buzz, who, if he were able to speak, surely would have said, “I told you so!†when supernatural stuff started popping off in suburbia.

“I was watching Poltergeist probably for the millionth time, and if you remember, that film starts with the golden retriever wandering around the house, clearly clued in that something haunting is going on before the humans have realized it,†he said. “I thought, ‘Someone should make a story entirely from that dog’s point of view.’ And it took a long time to figure out how to actually tell that story, but the result was Good Boy.â€

You’ll definitely appreciate and fear your own pet’s intuitive abilities after watching Good Boy. It hits Shudder November 21.

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