Good Boy, a dog-centric horror film that is both one of this genre’s best entries this year and something that pet owners and canine lovers may want to approach with caution, has landed itself a new streaming home in the UK.
The film, not to be confused with the Stephen Graham film of the same name that had its film festival debut this year, is the directorial debut of Ben Leonberg.
He realised that horror films often have dogs noticing the presence of supernatural beings before people do, and decided to explore that concept in its own movie.
Following its recent cinema release, where it made nearly $9 million off the back of a reported $70,000 budget, the film is now available to stream on the service Shudder.
Shudder is available on its own or as an add-on channel through the Prime Video app. Both avenues should offer you a 7-day free trial if you’re not a subscriber already and haven’t been for a while.
Courtesy of Shudder
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Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a very strong score of 90% positive from 174 critic reviews.
Digital Spy‘s own review called the film “a tough watch for dog lovers – but it’s also one of the year’s best horror movies”.
“What’s especially impressive about Good Boy is how good an actor [lead doggo] Indy is,” we wrote. “You’ll genuinely believe you see every emotion play across his face, and though it’s achieved through clever editing and suggestion, you won’t be thinking that when you see Indy stare into a darkened corner with sheer terror across his face.”
Courtesy of Shudder
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The Observer called Good Boy “both hair-raising and heartbreaking”, while The Times said Indy’s performance was “worth the price of admission” by itself.
“Many of the film’s images don’t make sense, but that doesn’t make them any less effective at scaring both Indy and the audience,” wrote Variety. “Good Boy reflects the powerful connection between people and their pets as few films have, ultimately devastating us with the devotion these soulmates are capable of showing.”
Good Boy is available to stream on Shudder now.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.