There's something deeply unnerving about watching horror unfold through the eyes of a creature that loves us unconditionally. IFC Films has released the official trailer for Good Boy, the debut feature from Ben Leonberg, and it's not your average haunted house story. Instead, this SXSW 2025 standout puts a loyal pup—Indy the Dog—front and center, turning man's best friend into cinema's most unlikely horror protagonist.
The premise sounds like a gimmick on paper. A “dog's POV” horror? Really? But then the trailer hits—you feel it in the pit of your stomach. Every glance at an empty corner, every tilt of Indy's ears, every guttural growl at something we can't see. It flips the genre's logic on its head: the one character we'd usually dismiss as “just sensing things” is the one we're forced to believe.
Indy and his owner Todd (played by Shane Jensen) move from city life into a rural family home, the kind of place that practically screams bad energy. Soon enough, shadows stretch a little too long, whispers slither through the halls, and Indy becomes both guardian and witness to a malevolent force that wants to consume Todd. Leonberg—working from a script co-written with Alex Cannon—leans hard into atmosphere over cheap scares. The effect? Claustrophobic dread filtered through pure canine loyalty.
When Good Boy premiered at SXSW earlier this year, reactions weren't just warm—they were ecstatic. IndieWire called it “genuinely unnerving” (source), while festival chatter described it as the kind of horror concept that sounds absurd until you realize no one's pulled it off before. Leonberg has said in Q&As that he wanted to explore horror “without irony, without the wink,” and that's exactly what comes through in the trailer.
Casting is a mix of indie veterans and fresh faces: genre legend Larry Fessenden shows up, alongside Arielle Friedman, Anya Krawcheck, and Stuart Rudin. But let's be clear—the star is Indy, who plays himself. If there were ever a moment to campaign for a canine acting Oscar (hey, stranger things have happened), this is it.
Mark the date: IFC Films releases Good Boy in select U.S. theaters on October 3rd, 2025. That's just enough time to prepare your emotional support animal—or maybe leave them at home. Watching a dog wrestle with spectral terror might just cut too close for some of us.
What Stands Out About Good Boy
Dog as protagonist
A horror film told entirely from the perspective of a family dog—rare, risky, and instantly disarming.
Festival buzz
Premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival, where it earned strong early reviews and genre attention.
Atmospheric horror
Leonberg favors creeping dread and unseen forces over gore or gimmicks.
Indy's performance
Forget the humans—this is a canine showcase. His fear and loyalty make the film's emotional core land hard.
Confirmed release date
IFC Films opens the film in U.S. theaters on October 3rd, 2025, right in the heart of Halloween season.
