Wait, Just How Many Movies and Series Named Good Boy Are There?
Every once in a while, the planets align and we find ourselves inundated with a fresh wave of new media that all bear confusingly similar names or titles. Typically, though, we end up with at least a few years between identically titled entries, enough conceptual space for the average, savvy media consumer to have at least some idea of which film or series is which, without having to do an internet deep dive or digital detective mission. That makes the sudden rash of new media all bearing the title of “Good Boy” all the more odd–by our count, there are at least three films or series arriving in 2025 alone with this title, and that’s in addition to several other still-recent examples … more than enough to cause significant confusion among those who don’t obsessively track release dates and filmographies the way we do.
The Good Boy you’re likely to hear about first, kicking off this particular wave of perplexity, is the supernatural horror feature film debut of director Ben Leonberg, an arthouse horror flick starring his own golden retriever as a committed and faithful dog protecting his master from a threat from beyond the grave. Leonberg’s film premiered at SXSW in March to strong reviews, and will hit U.S. cinemas in October, but one wonders if the SEO results will ultimately be clouded by the emergence of not only another 2025 feature film also named Good Boy, but also a prior 2023 film by the same name, and and a 2025 South Korean series that also bears the same title! Oh, and that’s not even counting the 2019 raunchy coming-of-age comedy Good Boys, which presaged this wave and was off by only one more letter in its title.
For the sake of setting the record straight, then, here’s a more detailed breakdown of all these very good boys.
Good Boy (2025)
Director: Ben Leonberg
This is the aforementioned supernatural horror film. It’s a semi-experimental venture in perspective, taking a familiar haunted house horror outline and reportedly setting the film pretty much entirely from the perspective of a dog concerned about the safety of his owner after the family moves into a haunted dwelling. The dog in question is Indy, a golden retriever owned by Leonberg and the film’s producer (Leonburg’s wife) Kari Fischer. Good Boy generated rave reviews out of SXSW for the performance of its star canine and overall effectiveness, and its unique hook seems destined to get it a lot of play when it enters wide theatrical release this Halloween season, which could make this Good Boy one of the bigger independent movies of 2025. Some early photos and a film poster have been released, but there has been no official footage yet–although you wouldn’t know that to look at YouTube, thanks to the proliferation of fake A.I. trailers. A real trailer will presumably arrive this fall in the build to its wide theatrical release.
Regardless, this seems like the Good Boy that the most column inches and discussion will be generated by in 2025, but things will surely be confused to some degree by …
Good Boy (2025)
Director: Jan Komasa
Where Leonberg’s film applied “good boy” in a fairly literal context, given that it’s actually, you know, about a dog, we now venture into ironic applications of the phrase. This is an English language thriller from Polish thriller specialist Jan Komasa, starring Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough and Anson Boon. The synopsis is as follows: “A 19-year-old criminal is kidnapped and forced into a rehabilitation process by a dysfunctional couple, who try to make him a “good boy.”” The newly release first photo from this week seems to illustrate exactly this, as we see the sulking, clearly furious young man with his neck and legs chained, holding a bowl of popcorn and seemingly having been made part of Movie Night against his will. The overall implication of the image is a certain level of dark humor, presumably centering Anson Boon’s Tommy as the protagonist as he attempts to break free from the crazy older couple who are attempting to break him psychologically by treating him like an animal.
Komasa’s Good Boy is scheduled to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in Sept., at right about the time that marketing should be picking up for Leonberg’s Good Boy–shouldn’t be irritating to anyone. But wait, we’re not done–the “person kept in chains and treated subserviently” aspects of Komasa’s film are also oddly similar to …
Good Boy (2023)
Director: Viljar Bøe
That’s right, the dust has barely settled from the release of another feature film Good Boy, this one from Norwegian writer-director Viljar Bøe. This film seems to be a psychological thriller, with more of an unnerving mystery angle, as well as a satire on the lengths to which we will go to overlook obvious red flags in the modern dating scene. A woman’s burgeoning relationship with a young man is upset when she finds that the “dog” he says he owns is actually a silent, subservient man in a dog costume. Or as the official synopsis puts it: “Sigrid thinks she’s met the perfect match with the charming and handsome Christian, but there is one catch — he lives with a man who acts like his pet dog. Trying to be open-minded, Sigrid continues the relationship but begins to notice an insidious undertone to Christian. Maybe ‘puppy play’ isn’t as innocent as it seems.”
This Good Boy has also reviewed quite well, believe it or not, with critics applauding its unnerving atmosphere and satire of abusive relationships and unbalanced power dynamics. It’s currently available to rent, or to stream via Paramount+. But wait, we’re still not done, because we need one last, totally left field entry in this category, in the form of …
Good Boy (2025)
Director: Shim Na-yeon
As if that wasn’t enough good boys, we have this curiously titled South Korean TV series that also premiered this May on Amazon Prime Video. This one is particularly inexplicable at a glance–even after watching the trailer below, the reason for the title of Good Boy isn’t really clear. One would think that they might have looked at the year’s film release calendar and noted that it was already getting rather crowded with Good Boy media, and elected to change the title of the series for the American market, but it seems destined to add at least one more confusing wrinkle to this saga. The series, if you were wondering, is apparently about professional sports stars who convert themselves into Jackie Chan, Police Story-style supercops. As the synopsis puts it: “Faced with financial struggles, short career spans, injuries, and other challenges, former elite athletes become special police officers and form a rag-tag team to fight violent crime – using their unique skills acquired during their time as athletes.”
Edgar Wright meets Sammo Hung meets Lethal Weapon? Perhaps it’s none of the above, but the absolute glut of Good Boy content does feel indicative of how crowded the independent film and streaming spaces have become, even for projects with literally no relation to each other outside of a confusingly shared title. We’re all surrounded by so much content at all times, that keeping track of it or retaining a wide base of expertise becomes more and more difficult every year. As for 2025, good luck googling anything related to Good Boy, but after reading the above, hopefully you’ll be able to keep them straight.
Jim Vorel is Paste’s Movies editor and resident genre geek. You can follow him on Twitter or on Bluesky for more film writing.
