Good Boy

Currently Only in Theaters

Runtime: 1 Hour and 12 Minutes

Rated PG-13

A man and his dog, Indy, move into an old family house where his grandfather passed away. Unbeknownst to his owner, Indy senses something terrible about this house and quickly discovers that there are supernatural forces at play that want to kill his master.

Themes:

Man’s best friend, death, dying, loss, grief, the supernatural, dog’s senses, mystery, love, family, empathy, courage, the past, terminal illness, and an old haunted house.

Language:

D*mn - 3 F-Word - 4 Hell - 2 Sh*t - 2 Religious Exclamations - 6

Stuff to be aware of:

Scary - This is a “horror” movie so there are some scary supernatural bits. There is what looks like a human covered in mud that pops up out of nowhere. Hands come out of "dark spots and grab characters (mainly the dog). Shadows move and cast scary images. A man is drug around by an unseen force. There are shadows of what looks like some type of being.

A man bangs his head against a door as if sleep walking. Creepy noises and music are throughout the movie.

Sexual - There is not really anything sexual in movie, but one man is seen briefly getting out of bed and he is only wearing his underwear. The same man also pee’s on a hike in the woods. You see his back and hear a “peeing” sound, but nothing graphic is seen.

Violence/Gore - A man bleed’s from his mouth and seems to be having a seizure. He is found before he dies. There are some scenes in which blood is seen, for example there is a bloody bandana were someone died. A dog skeleton is discovered in one scene and the skeleton is seen a few other times throughout the film. Indy (the dog) is briefly caught in a fox trap, but is not hurt badly. One character vomits and coughs up blood.

Overall:

Seeing It With Your Family

This is not intended to be a family movie, but it is fairly tame on the “horror” aspect. As far as scary goes this is a lot less scary than most modern horror movies like The Conjuring, Weapons, Abigail, etc. That isn’t to say it is scare-free. I jumped twice. Not from images being scary, but just intense jump scares.

I was a bit shocked at the language. I did not realize a PG-13 rated move could use the f-word as much as it did. As far as sexual things, this moive is also very tame compared to most horror movies.

Basically if you enjoy horror but don’t like gore and sexual stuff this could be a movie for you, but beware the language.

What I Thought

I went into this with slightly the wrong expectations. I expected a horror movie from a dog’s perspective, which is what I got and the director does an good job with it, but what I didn’t expect was the artistic aspect. This is an artistic horror movie. It artistically deals with the ideas of death, dying, and loss. This isn’t a bad thing, but I think it keeps the movie from going full horror and giving us the classic it could have been.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a horror movie, but maybe isn’t what you would expect. This is one of those movies that I am glad I watched, and I enjoyed it for what it is, but it probably isn’t a movie I will watch over again. This isn’t one of those horror movies you return to every fall. My suggestion, if you like horror see it at least once. If you enjoy an artistic movie this may be one that really intrigues you.