{"id":43064,"date":"2025-09-25T18:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T18:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/43064\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T18:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T18:55:08","slug":"the-director-of-good-boy-on-creating-horror-from-a-dogs-point-of-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/43064\/","title":{"rendered":"The Director of ‘Good Boy’ on Creating Horror From a Dog’s Point of View"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most dog owners<\/a> can recall at least one instance where their pup has reacted to a seemingly invisible presence. Are they picking up a sound pitched higher than our hearing? Sniffing out the memory of a dropped piece of food? Or perhaps\u2026 using their canine super-senses<\/a> to detect something supernatural?<\/p>\n

Good Boy<\/a>, the feature debut of director and co-writer Ben Leonberg, takes that idea and runs with it, following Indy (played by Leonberg\u2019s own dog) and his owner, Todd (Shane Jensen), as they move into the former home of Todd\u2019s late grandfather. It\u2019s a gloomy, dark, isolated place, and\u2014as Indy soon realizes<\/a>\u2014it appears to be teeming with unquiet spirits.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Good Boy\u2018s release next week, io9 got a chance to talk to Leonberg, with a quick hello from Indy too.<\/p>\n

It Began With \u2018Poltergeist\u2019 <\/p>\n

Cheryl Eddy, io9: I\u2019m curious about the initial idea for Good Boy. Did you know you wanted to do a horror movie as your first feature? When did the idea of centering it on Indy become a part of it?<\/p>\n

Ben Leonberg: It\u2019s probably not hard to predict, if I have a dog named Indy, that some of my favorite films are, broadly speaking, genre [films]. Horror is just something\u2014because I\u2019m such a fan of the craft of filmmaking, at least the kind that I\u2019m really excited about\u2014I think about all the time. So I\u2019m not surprised I made a horror movie first.<\/p>\n

And in terms of the idea of where it came from, to crystallize a moment I can remember, 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. I thought, \u201cSomeone should make a story entirely from that dog\u2019s point of view.\u201d And it took a long time to figure out how to actually tell that story, but the result was Good Boy.<\/p>\n

io9: The haunted house is a classic horror setting\u2014in Poltergeist, obviously, but many others too\u2014and Good Boy really leans into those elements. The door\u2019s creaking; the power goes out. How did you approach making those tropes feel fresh by filming them from the dog\u2019s point of view?<\/p>\n

Leonberg: I think the point of view of the dog was the challenge and the solution. Just by virtue of, sometimes, what it would actually take to put the camera in a dog\u2019s point of view for this scene that feels familiar because it\u2019s been played out in many horror films before. Filming it from a dog\u2019s point of view made it feel fresh because the camera is in a place no one\u2019s ever seen this take place from before.<\/p>\n

I think a lot of the scenes work because most horror films are following human characters. So take a scene where the person walks into a room and [says], \u201cThat\u2019s weird\u2014the dog is staring at an empty corner.\u201d In our film, we\u2019re seeing the moment before the human walks in. We\u2019re seeing that dog follow this invisible thing and get to this place. So it\u2019s almost like the film is a behind-the-scenes look at a setting or a circumstance that audiences kind of intuitively already understand but have never seen play out just this way.<\/p>\n

\"Good\u00a9 Courtesy of Ben Leonberg\/An Independent Film Company and Shudder Release Plus, Some Charlie Brown Inspiration <\/p>\n

io9: We never really see the faces of the human characters. Why did you want to structure it that way?<\/p>\n

Leonberg: It was both a creative and a practical consideration. The practical reason is that Indy is my own dog, and as I learned how to work with him, one of the things I quickly realized is that for some of the really genuine, real emotional moments [with] Todd, the easiest way [was for me] to stand in as the human talent for the scene.<\/p>\n

As we discovered the way we were going to make the movie, it just became very clear that I was going to need to both film, direct, and edit the movie, but then also run around and be on camera to play the body of Todd. To be very clear, Shane Jensen, who provides the voice, he plays Todd. The voice is what really gives Todd his performance. I\u2019m not really an actor. Having my face off camera would then allow me to talk to Indy, saying lines that are not what is genuinely genuinely being heard by the audience, but would direct his performance while I was on camera with him<\/p>\n

I think creatively, it just speaks to the way we wanted the film to unfold [in a way that] focuses and centers the storytelling on a dog\u2019s point of view. Indy\u2019s eyeline is only 19 inches off the ground. There were plenty of times I would have had to actually do something quite a bit odd with the camera to get the human faces into the story.<\/p>\n

A point of reference we sometimes would bring up was Muppet Babies, or maybe Charlie Brown, where the adults in the story are never quite seen. They\u2019re heard off camera, or we see them from the waist down, because it\u2019s a story of the Muppet Babies or the kids of the Charlie Brown [Peanuts] world. So, too, with Good Boy focusing purely on dog level, where every shot of the story is either from Indy\u2019s point of view or a shot of Indy, it kind of naturally works that the humans are not centered. So again, creative and practical.<\/p>\n

Indy\u2019s Acting Process <\/p>\n

io9: How much of it was you directing him and how much was sort of spontaneously capturing his behavior and then working that into the film?<\/p>\n

Leonberg: I would say it\u2019s a pretty even split, but the word \u201cdirecting\u201d is kind of interesting, just because when working with a dog, even the best-trained dog in the world\u2014who is not Indy, but that\u2019s also what makes him good for this movie\u2014you can\u2019t just give him instructions and ask him to follow them. Even when it felt like I was really directing him, I was providing stimuli that he was genuinely reacting to.<\/p>\n

To hold his gaze in a close-up, I usually had a piece of food just off camera, so I would get him locked in on that and then he would get the food. Rinse and repeat. You can get several takes that way.<\/p>\n

At other times, another shot that I think would feel very directed is: Indy starts off-camera, I roll things, I go hide somewhere in the set, I call him in by making a sound, and he walks into the scene, and then I abruptly start quacking like a duck. In the edited film, the sound design [and] the music makes it seem like when Indy turns his head towards the quacking sound, there are no quacking sounds. It\u2019s Indy hearing the floorboard creak that shouldn\u2019t be creaking.<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s interesting to say how much of it is directing versus his genuine reaction. Because there also are certainly times where the way Indy weaves in between my legs when I get out of bed in the morning, which is kind of this cute little idiosyncratic thing that he does for real, we managed to capture that as a way to show Todd and Indy\u2019s relationship, that they love each other. This is a ritual they have, and that kind of physicality is returned to as the story progresses and the relationship deepens and the haunting intensifies.<\/p>\n

\"Good\u00a9 Courtesy of Ben Leonberg\/An Independent Film Company and Shudder Release The Supporting Cast <\/p>\n

io9: And while the movie is essentially two characters, we do have a few others, including Todd\u2019s grandfather, played by indie horror legend Larry Fessenden, as well as Bandit, the ghostly dog. What were your experiences like working with them?<\/p>\n

Leonberg: We were able to get in touch with [Larry and] I think he just enjoyed and liked the idea. We were filming with Larry actually well after principal photography had wrapped. We filmed with Indy\u2014just me, Indy, and my wife [producer Kari Fischer] doing all of the jobs together for three years, over 400 days. And we brought Larry at the end basically to fill in the gaps. Then shortly thereafter we also brought in [more] human talent to then provide voices and create all of the sounds and visuals that really make the movie sing.<\/p>\n

Larry\u2019s been great. I mean, he knows exactly what to do. He has been in lots of horror movies and understands the genre so well. So after three years of working with a dog who\u2014I cannot say it enough\u2014does not know he\u2019s in a horror movie, to tell Larry just like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s a scene\u2026\u201d You know, he gets what\u2019s on the script. He knows exactly how to execute. And it was like, great, three takes. We\u2019re good. And he\u2019s been an amazing cheerleader for the film as well. He\u2019s just really like the patron saint of horror movies.<\/p>\n

io9: What about the ghost dog? How was his work ethic?<\/p>\n

Leonberg: So we started working on the film with Indy because he was my own dog and I found this unique way to work with him. So I wondered, would it work also to just see if I could get my parents\u2019 dog to give a similar performance? I will say what makes Indy so uniquely qualified for this is that he\u2019s a naturally very serious and driven dog. He likes to have a job.<\/p>\n

Max, who plays Bandit, required many more pet breaks and frequently wanted to run off camera to just lay in your lap and be cuddled and loved, which of course we obliged him, but he was a little slower going. Though at the end of the day, I think he ultimately gives a great performance, which\u2014credit to my wife; she was wrangling Max and brought it out of him.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Next for Good Boy\u2018s Breakout Star? <\/p>\n

io9: You mentioned Indy likes to have a job. Is this his first and last movie, or do you think he\u2019ll be back for more?<\/p>\n

Leonberg: We certainly have more ideas for dog storytelling, you know, whether it\u2019s another Good Boy film or another kind of dog-centered film. As for Indy, I think he was very uniquely qualified to make this film but the way we made this film is very unusual [compared] to how most films are made, which is to say, 12 hours a day, day after day, until it concludes. We filmed for three one- to three-hour chunks over three years and I think that style will be difficult to replicate with most other productions.<\/p>\n

So he\u2019s probably gonna retire after this. Again, he had no idea he was working to begin with, but I don\u2019t know. Maybe the right dog food Super Bowl commercial will come around and he\u2019ll come out of retirement.<\/p>\n

io9: How old is he?<\/p>\n

Leonberg: He\u2019s eight years old. I don\u2019t know how old Indy appears to look, but just very conveniently, dogs don\u2019t age like people and don\u2019t require hair and makeup to be ready to film. So making the film over the duration we did, working with a dog has its advantages.<\/p>\n

io9: I love that you put the puppy footage in there too, so cute.<\/p>\n

Leonberg: Yes, and that\u2019s him. That\u2019s genuinely him.<\/p>\n

Good Boy opens in theaters October 3; we\u2019ll have more from io9\u2019s interview with Leonberg after it hits theaters.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most dog owners can recall at least one instance where their pup has reacted to a seemingly invisible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[38420,9213,156,27928,409,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-43064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ben-leonberg","9":"tag-dogs","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-good-boy","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}