One of my favorite films that played at this year’s Overlook Film Festival was Good Boy, a haunted house movie shot from the point of view of Indy, the home owner’s dog. This was one of the most buzzed about films at the fest and, ahead of the Overlook screening, I had a chance to catch up with Ben Leonberg (Director, Co-Writer, Cinematographer) and Alex Cannon (Co-Writer), discussing the challenges of making the film, Indy’s favorite treat, the festival experience, and more:
Have you always been a “dog person”? Did you grow up with dogs?
Ben Leonberg: Yeah, I grew up with dogs. Not training dogs, specifically, but we’d do things like fetch and obedience. So I had a little bit of a background when it came to: How do you get a performance out of a dog?
We have schnauzers, and they do not listen to us well enough that we could make a short film, let alone a full feature. Indy really is a star.
Ben Leonberg: The most important resource in making this movie was time. You go into [filming] every day and you think you know how the dog, Indy, is going to react, but he’s just a huge X factor.
It’s not like you’re working with a human actor who agrees on the reality of the premise that we’re making a movie together, you know? Every shot required some level of invention. Like, this didn’t quite work the way we expected, so we have to shift the camera or change how we’re dialing in these performances to get it all to work.
You’re able to build these scenes with Indy and create just so much tension. I love that sequence where the camera is right behind Indy as he’s looking up the stairs, and the sense of scale from his POV really makes that scene so much more effective.
Ben Leonberg: In terms of creating tension, we storyboarded the whole movie ahead of time. As I mentioned, there’s a ton of adaptation, so the film and the [original] storyboards are not one-to-one. As I got further into the movie, I started redrawing some of the scenes with a loose stick figure because if you’re working with the human actor, they can just hit a mark.
We’re setting up for the dog to react genuinely, and he’s as method as it gets. He can’t hit a perfect mark if his eyes catch the light, so you have to change how you’re lighting. You’re filming it so that the camera’s not distracting to him, and also you have to have flexibility to work around the impreciseness of Indy’s performance.
Did Indy have a favorite treat or toy when you were filming? For my pup, he always loves bananas.
Ben Leonberg: Indy’s favorite thing would be carrots. We never used carrots on set, though, because he would be too excited. We bribed him all the time, but it was just with his normal dinner food. He wasn’t as excited about that because if he looks super excited, it dispels the illusion of the haunted house movie.
While the film is from Indy’s point of view, there’s a very grounded story surrounding his owner.
Alex Cannon: You hear stories about how dogs can smell drugs and bombs. They are used in hospitals to detect some diseases. It feels like they are detecting the invisible and what if they’re able to detect a malevolent force that they don’t fully understand? So much of the movie is Indy motivated by what’s happening and what he’s experiencing, oftentimes moving away from the experience the [human] characters are having.
How did Larry Fessenden get involved in this project, and, aside from his role in this film, did he provide any creative feedback? He always has such a wealth of knowledge that I know has been an asset in indie film productions.
Ben Leonberg: Because the dog is such a big X factor, we recorded the full film with myself and the film’s producer, who is my wife and Indy’s dog mom. So the movie was mostly done by the time Larry came on board, so he got to see the movie and agreed to be a part of it. He’s been great and he’s been especially helpful in post-production and the festival phase. He is a joy to work with and brings so much to the movie.
What has the festival experience been like? I can imagine that some people that are not normally into horror movies have been interested in Good Boy, and I can also imagine that the audience reaction may be a little different with a dog in danger as opposed to a human.
Alex Cannon: Yeah, it’s been a delight. We’ve been cooking this thing up for four plus years, and to finally get to see it in a room where you can feel other people react to it is a joy. We’ve made movies in the past, both comedies and horror, and it’s fun because, in both types of movies, you get to see a reaction in the room. We think the movie’s good. That’s why we made it, but when you see it with a big crowd in a room, you can see that the scare actually does work.
Ben Leonberg: It’s been really fun talking to people after and someone says, “I’m not a horror fan, but I’m so glad I saw this, like. I saw this because I like dogs!” You can tell they’re clearly not into horror, and the movie has affected them. People seem to genuinely find the [movie] very effective, and then they want to talk about their relationship with their dog, so that’s been amazing.
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To read our review of the film from Matt Donato, visit:
https://dailydead.com/sxsw-2025-review-good-boy-is-a-rousing-success-that-defies-genre-expectations/
[Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
