Ben Leonberg Teaches an Old Genre New Tricks

At SXSW, where “Good Boy” premiered earlier this year, festival organizers came up with a special prize for Indy, the protective dog — a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever with chestnut brown fur and shiny, ultra-expressive eyes — on constant lookout for invisible threats. Not unlike the Palme Dog awarded each year at Cannes, SXSW’s one-off “Howl of Fame” honor went to the unconventional film’s four-legged star, who carries a high-concept haunted house story told almost entirely from the dog’s point of view — which is to say, at knee height, cutting between Indy’s adorable face and the ghostly apparitions only he can see.

Like a high-pitched whistle that’s detectable to dogs but not their masters, these freaky visions elude Todd (Shane Jensen) even as they clearly upset his intuitive companion. Indy is actually writer-director Ben Leonberg’s dog, and though the poor animal spends most of the film looking distressed, Leonberg wasn’t about to traumatize his beloved pet. To suggest the opposite — the easily perturbed canine equivalent of a “fraidy-cat,” if you will — “Good Boy” uses all kinds of clever tricks, from inventive editing to “The Babadook”-style gags where terrifying silhouettes move in the background.

Executed with limited resources but maximum ingenuity, the film opens with a home-movie montage of Todd raising this handsome retriever since he was a puppy. Indy would do anything for his human, who’s dealing with issues neither Indy nor we can entirely understand. Turns out, Todd has inherited the same condition that killed his grandfather (played by low-budget horror legend Larry Fessenden). Rather than suffer in the city, he takes Indy out to the abandoned home he inherited from the old man.

Todd may be looking for some peace and quiet, but that’s hardly the vibe Indy gets when they arrive on a rainy night. He hears what sounds like another dog whining as he passes the storm…