Good Boy: Is It Zooey?
I really like horror movies. Absolutely my favorite genre of film. There's something about connecting with that most primal sense of fear that really makes you feel alive. Or at least, for me anyway. Which is why when I heard about a dog horror movie, that is, a horror movie where a dog is the main character, I was immediately interested.
I was even more interested after said dog ended up winning the "Best Performance" award at Astra, a fairly prestigious film and acting award show. There was plenty of discourse online about it, as of course there is with everything. And I have to admit, even I was like "Haha okay they're doing something cute and fun", somewhat disregarding the actual pedigree of the award myself. But, the advertising worked, and so I finally decided to sit down and watch the movie.
The basic premise of the film is this. Indy is a dog, living with a human named Todd. Todd gets really sick with some kind of disease, and while at first it seems like he's getting better, at some point he decides that he wants to get away from everything and move back to their family's cabin in the middle of the woods. What's really cool about the movie is that so much of it is really told from the perspective of Indy himself. We very rarely take on points of view from other characters. We are living in Indy's world as he experiences the events of the film.
I will be spoiling the film in this article, so if you've been sitting around waiting to see this but haven't found the time, and you care about spoilers, it's probably worth going and watching it first. It's only a little more than 70 minutes long, you can find the time. But, this article wont be a recap of the movie as much as it focuses on something that I find much more interesting. The relationship between Todd and Indy. Because that's right, we're trying to deduce whether or not this film is zooey.
Let's start with the beginning here. Todd lives alone. We don't know if he's had prior relationships in the past, but at the very least we know that at the time of the film he's likely single. Or, at least, he's not seeing any other humans. He also never makes an effort to talk to anyone other than his sister when he leaves for the cabin, which adds to that theory.
From what it looks like, Todd and Indy have a very close relationship. They sleep in the same bed, a bed that really isn't that big, and are more than comfortable snuggling up with one another. When they wake up, the first thing that Todd does is shower Indy with affection. They have a thing where Todd sits on the edge of the bed and Indie crawls under his legs while Todd rubs him all over. It's very cute. But, it goes further than that too. At one point, Todd is eating popcorn while watching a movie with Indy, and Indy asks for some in the way that dogs do. To share the popcorn, Todd puts a kernel in his mouth, and then has Indy come in and lick it out from him. It's very akin to that scene from Lady and the Tramp where the two dogs have the piece of spaghetti. They don't just do it once either, they do it multiple times. I've never seen a non-zoo that eager to kiss a dog before, but given the way it's played it feels like something they do a lot. It's not necessarily conclusive, but it's one more piece of the puzzle showing the intimacy that exists within their relationship. They're comfortable with each other.
I honestly think the first half of the film feels as much like a romance story as it does a horror movie. Yes it's setting up the anxiety, but between that we get to see this really romantic tale of a human and a dog that move out of the big city and get away from it all to move into a small house in the countryside together. Indy is never on a leash, they spend their days lounging around, or going for walks in the forest. Honestly, it sounds like how I would love to spend my days with my partner. To mainstream audiences, I'm sure it's very easy to read this as normal dog and owner things, but I think if you replaced Indy with another human it would suddenly click for the more human attracted as to what I'm talking about as well. It's very much the set up for a lifetime romantic drama.
It is, however, a horror movie. The romantic days don't last. Todd's sickness starts to get worse, and as it does, he changes. Indy is affected by it too. He starts seeing shadows, barely visible to the naked eye. He has dreams of getting chased, or attacked. He starts seeing a man covered in muck haunting the halls of the house, as well as the ghost of another dog that lived there previously.
Something really important that starts to happen is that it also changes the dynamic of the relationship between our two lovebirds. Todd starts to become more and more depressed, anxious, angry. At one point, he goes for some kind of blood test and comes home exhausted, and crawls into bed after being gone all day. Indy comes up to him to comfort him, but Todd keeps physically pushing him away. After a few repeated attempts, Todd grabs Indy by the neck and throws him off the bed, screaming for Indy to leave him alone." Indy instead lays down below the bed, keeping watch. However, Indy's dreams get more and more complicated. As much as he sees Todd as a friend, he also starts to see Todd as an aggressor. The shadow haunting him taking the shape of his friend.
It becomes relevant for me to really spoil the plot here. At least, as far as I understand it. The ghosts that are haunting the pair are death. At least, in the way that the film makers see it. The ghosts get stronger as Todd gets sicker specifically because what we're seeing is the manifestation of the way that Indy is rationalizing the sickness and impending death of his human. In the climax of the movie, Todd ends up chaining Indy outside to a Dog House, the only time in the whole film where Todd ever puts any kind of restriction on where Indy can and can't go, and then goes back inside. We see the monster get more and more aggressive as Indy can't stop staring into the window where Todd is laying in bed. He knows something is coming. Indy eventually manages to break out of the chain and get back into the house, running into the bedroom just as Todd breathes his last breath. At that point, death comes to claim him. He drags Todd down from the bedroom all the way to the basement, to a hole in the foundation that leads to absolute darkness. And Indy chases them the whole way, even running into the abyss to grab Todd and pull his soul back from oblivion itself. But, Todd knows that it's his time. With one final goodbye, he tells Indy that he's a good boy, but Indy can't save him. It's a heartfelt moment only earned by Indy willing to risk the danger to try and save Todd.
Here's the thing with these "Is It Zooey" articles. Very rarely is media like "Yes me and this animal are dating, I am a zoophile". Sometimes it does happen, but much like queer movies in the past, sometimes you have to read between the lines of "Good friends that live together" to understand the real context that's just too hard to say in the current political climate. But, from what I feel, Good Boy is just about as explicitly zooey as it gets. Indy and Todd love each other. They sleep together. They make out sometimes. They respect each other's autonomy. They have a relationship very similar to the relationship that I, a zoosexual, have with my partner. And, when the shit really hits the fan, even when Todd is corrupted by his sickness and treating Indy badly, Indy still loves him enough to dive into hell for him. And, it's not hard to think that were the roles reversed that Todd would do the same right back for Indy. This is a zoosexual relationship, and in that context this movie is as much a romantic tragedy as it is horror.
But, not every story needs to be happy, and I for one think it's awesome to see a piece of myself reflected in the context of a major motion picture that people actually talk about.
So yeah, Good Boy absolutely is zooey, and while it's definitely a low budget film, it's one that's definitely worth a watch.
Article written by Tarro (February 2026)
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