The trump card of the horror “Bom Menino” is the dog Indy

Culture

The dog’s look and expression are very precise and captivating. He is, we can say without embarrassment, a great actor

Recommending the film “Good Boy”, directed by Ben Leonberg, is offering your friend a pleasant 70 minutes of a small American production, in the horror genre, sinister, but unexpectedly sweet.

The absolute protagonist is Indy, a Nova Scotian Retriever dog, and the events unfold, radically, under his gaze and senses (he is the only face we see clearly until near the end of the film).

Its owner, Todd (Shane Jensen), suffers from a lung disease, which we soon learn is genetic and fatal. He seems to feel the need to isolate himself in an old, abandoned country house that has been in his family for generations. Todd will be staying at this house and, of course, he will take his dog.

Later, it will become clear that going to that house is not just a necessity. Much more than that, Todd is being drawn, inevitably, to it, the home of a family curse, a shortcut, perhaps, to hell.

Good boy

It’s a haunted house movie, of course. The house is a wreck. The interior is covered in dust and lots of rubble. Nearby, in the forest, there is a family cemetery where ancestors are buried, some who died very young with the same illness as Todd.

Even before arriving in the new environment, when Indy is close to his owner, he is tormented by strange noises. In the old house, home of the curse, the hauntings increase significantly, with the addition of visions of creepy beings. Todd doesn’t understand the dog’s strange behavior (can these animals, after all, see spirits?). The director takes these events to very unusual conclusions, which includes what’s left of Todd’s grandfather’s dog.

“The Good Boy” has several qualities – the photography, with its soft colors, has the atmosphere of “once upon a time” –, but the great asset is the dog Indy. His gaze and the expression of his facial muscles are very precise and captivating. He is, we can say without embarrassment, a great actor (perhaps like all other well-trained dogs?). The filmmaker makes great use of this canine character and presents him, in the end, with a dilemma worthy of “Sophie’s Choice”.

Indy the dog

But it wasn’t simple working with Indy. It took 400 days of filming to get this protagonist to obey human rules and deliver this performance. Not even the biggest Hollywood super-productions come close to this long filming time. It would cost an unimaginable amount. But director Ben Leonberg, however, is in the universe of ultra-independent cinema, with a minimal team, an almost manual production. His first feature film didn’t even cost 1 million dollars. However, there are the pleasures of cinema, the scares of a good horror film, convincing ghosts, in addition to the original atmosphere and a protagonist that disarms the heart, this anguished and courageous dog.

Film

“O Bom Menino” is showing in several cinemas in Curitiba.