Good Boy is a Norwegian horror-thriller film directed by Viljar Bøe, and the cast includes Katrine Lovise Øpstad Fredriksen, Gard Løkke, Sebastian Dante, Amalie Willoch Njaastad and Sirena Ortiz.
Let me start by saying this—online dating is already a horror movie.
You don’t need serial killers or supernatural monsters, you just need to spend an hour swiping on Tinder, and you’ll find horrors that will keep you up at night.
Dudes who take selfies in the front seat of their car like they’re in witness protection, and girls who only post group photos, forcing you to play Guess Who with their identity.
And if nothing else, it’ll make you feel a lot better about your own dating life, because no matter how bad your last Tinder date was, at least the guy didn’t introduce you to his human pet.
And that’s the premise of Good Boy (Also known as Me, You, and Frank), a slow burn horror-thriller movie (Even at less than 80 minutes long, it's still slow at times), that leans so hard into uncomfortable tension that you can physically feel it in your bones.
The story follows Sigrid, a bright-eyed psychology student who meets Christian, a rich, good looking dude on a dating app, and she decides to meet up with him, and at first, everything seems great as she finds him quite charming, and he doesn’t immediately suggest a "Netflix and chill" date, which is already an improvement over most guys.
But then she gets to his house and finds out about Frank.
Frank is Christian’s dog, except Frank is not a dog, as Frank is a man.
A full-grown man, in a dog suit, crawling around on all fours, barking, panting, and fully committing to the role of “pet.”, which Christian thinks is completely normal.
Now, at this point, most people would start backing toward the door, making up some excuse like, Oh, I forgot to turn the oven off before sprinting to safety, and at first, Ingrid is disturbed by Christian and Frank’s strange relationship, but after talking to her roommate Aurora (Amalie Willoch Njaastad), she starts to reconsider, and when Aurora finds out Christian is a multi-millionaire, she urges Ingrid to stay with him despite his creepy behavior.
And Good Boy just sits in this creepy, awkward tension, making you question what’s actually happening. Is this some weird kink thing? Is it psychological manipulation? Is Frank in on it, or is he a victim? The movie plays with these questions, dropping little hints that something much darker is at play.
The performances in the film are good enough, as Sigrid (Katrine Lovise Øpstad Fredriksen) is totally believable, and even though you want to grab her by the shoulders and scream, LEAVE, YOU IDIOT!, but much like in real life, it isn't always as simple as that, as the plot starts to explore control and power struggles in relationships.
Christian (Gard Løkke) is exactly the kind of guy you’d want to meet on a dating app who seems perfect at first but gets just a little too intense once you’re alone with him, and then there’s Frank (Nicolai Narvesen Lied), , who deserves an award just for his commitment.
The world is normal, the house is normal, everything is normal except for Frank, as the film goes from awkward to full blown nightmare fuel.
Now, up until the final act, Good Boy is decent, with some good atmosphere and tension, always making you wonder when things will finally snap.
And then…it does.
Up until this point, the horror in Good Boy is psychological and unsettling, and it’s built on dread and unease with some dark humorous moments thrown in too, but when it finally decides to go horror, it does it a fairly lazy way that goes for shock factor.
I don't want to reveal what happens, but I felt the ending didn't really make sense, and it’s like they wrote themselves into a corner, and with all that careful tension was thrown out the window for a climax that feels rushed and a bit messy, and if you don't like ambiguous endings, you will be a bit frustrated with it in that aspect, too, as it's a film that leaves some things open for discussion.
The writing at times could have been better too, and is a little uneven with some character choices will no doubt raise eyebrows at times (What's new?), and it could have delved into the backstory of it all a bit, and this definitely ruins part of the film that might bother people more than it did for me.
With that said though, is Good Boy worth watching?
Yeah, I would say it's worth a watch, as. it’s original, and makes you feel uneasy, and if you like some horror elements that’s more about atmosphere and that unsettling creepy dread, rather than just in your face jump scares, it’s worth a watch, but I wish the ending was a bit more polished and the writing tightened up better, and I am not surprised by the very mixed reviews this film has, as it's far from perfect, but it kept me interested throughout.
It's just a whole lot of strangeness and weirdness, while also being creepy and funny, and it's all just quite bizarre.
[Good Boy on IMDB] [Where to watch Good Boy]
Read some more horror movie reviews: