Good Boy Movie: Is It Based on a True Story — And Why Everyone Wants the Ending Spoiled First

Ben Leonberg's Good Boy is not your typical haunted house movie; it's beyond anything one can imagine.

Premiering at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival, this indie horror movie reportedly left audiences shaken and not just because of its supernatural scares. But because of its unique storytelling. Good Boy is told entirely from the perspective of a dog named Indy.

Well, 2025 is the year of horror. With smashing hits like Sinners, Bring Her Back, and most recently Weapons, the genre is at its pinnacle of success. Amidst this, Good Boy stands out thanks to its unconventional lead.

Viewers follow Indy as he and his owner, Todd, move from the city into an eerie, long-abandoned countryside home. From the moment they arrive, Indy's unease is palpable. He senses things no one else can, sees what others don't, and becomes the first and often only line of defence against the creeping evil that threatens his best friend.

Is It Based On a True Story?

Good Boy is not based on real events, and thank god that it isn't. However, the feelings it stirs are all too familiar to pet owners. The film draws heavily from a widely shared collective experience by pet parents when their dog starts barking at a corner, stares into the darkness, or growls at what seems to be nothing.

Co-writer and director Ben Leonberg told Filmmaker Magazine his aim was to lean into that very real tension, grounding Indy's reactions in genuine canine behaviour rather than fantasy.

'This isn't Air Bud or Lassie, where the dog is always happy-go-lucky,' Leonberg explained. 'He's not imbued with a voice... but by instinct, sensation, and simple reasoning.' That commitment to authenticity, even within the film's supernatural frame, has helped Good Boy feel chillingly real.

Why Everyone Wants the Ending Spoiled First

Here's where things get interesting. Even before watching the film, many viewers are heading straight to Reddit threads and spoiler forums. Why? Because they want to know whether the dog will survive?

It's a unique phenomenon in horror. Audiences are usually desperate to avoid spoilers, but when it comes to animals, particularly dogs, the rules change. There's something about seeing a loyal, trusting animal in danger that many find too emotionally intense to sit through unprepared.

'If that dog f...ing dies, I'm gonna be pi..ed and sad,' one fan wrote in a popular thread. 'I just don't want to watch it if the dog dies since it triggers something in me.'

This instinct isn't unfounded. Pet loss is a deeply personal, devastating experience, and watching it play out on screen, especially in a horror setting, can be too much for some viewers. The emotional connection many feel with their pets is, after all, the very same bond Good Boy explores.

And it's not just audiences who noticed. SXSW awarded Indy the inaugural "Howl of Fame" award, praising the dog's 'natural and chilling' performance. The jury wrote, 'Indy and his humans remind us even when darkness threatens to consume us, a faithful dog's love knows no bounds.'

Good Boy is Here To Change the Game

Despite the temptation to dig for spoilers, Good Boy deserves to be experienced unspoiled, if one can handle it. The film's power lies in how it builds tension through a dog's eyes, creating a sense of anxiety and helplessness that's both novel and emotionally resonant.

Critic Rafael Motomayor called it 'one of the year's best,' noting how it taps into that universal fear of something being 'just slightly off.' 'We've all experienced the creepiness of a pet sensing something you can't,' he wrote.

Hence, Good Boy may not be based on a true story, but its emotional realism is going to hit the audience very hard. In placing viewers inside a dog's perspective, not through speech, but instinct and fear, the film transforms into a deeply human story about loyalty, grief, and love.