31 Days of Hell: Good Boy (2022) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Saban Films

Within the last couple of decades, Norway emerged on the world stage as a new cinematic horror film force to be reckoned with including but not limited to such galvanizing fare as Hidden and Antichrist to more fantastical fare such as Thale and Troll Hunter.  Generally unafraid of gazing deep into the bottomless pit of unfathomable, even despairing horrors, they’re characterized by being a bit more difficult cinematic pills to swallow.  

In the last year, not one but three boundary pushing examples of distinctly Scandinavian horror films appeared which global scary and/or disturbing movie fans are still grappling with: Kristoffer Borgli’s narcissistic body-horror satire Sick of Myself, Christian Tafdrup’s draining vacation shocker Speak No Evil and one of the more bizarre, unclassifiable creepy rich kid movies with new writer-director Viljar Bøe’s Good Boy.

 
Dropping viewers into a most peculiar home dynamic out of the gate, we meet exceedingly well-dressed millionaire heir Christian (Gard Løkke) who lives in a swanky mansion and owns a secluded expensive cottage as well.  Via a dating app, he catches the attention of young college student Sigrid (Katrine Lovise Øpstad Fredriksen) and they go out for dinner before heading back to his mansion to spend the night together.  Unbeknownst to Sigrid, however, Christian also owns a “dog” named Frank who turns out to be a fully grown man in a furry dog costume replete with moving facial parts and a snout for eating and the man barks and moves about the room like a canine.  

Naturally, Sigrid is shocked and storms out, much to the chagrin of her roommate who smells money and urges her to reconsider the bizarre arrangement.  Reluctantly she agrees and plays along though the coexistence between owners and man in a furry costume never becomes sexual or fetishistic, until a weekend getaway trip with the dog in tow starts raising more than a few red flags about what this naïve college girl may or may not have gotten herself into.

 
Unsettling, uncomfortable and uncompromising from the get-go this cringe and queasy inducing slow burn of a thriller that eventually builds towards a difficult-to-categorize shriek has a way of worming its way under the viewer’s skin naturally without feeling forced.  Much like Speak No Evil released in the same year, the film is a darkly sardonic rumination on the lengths people will go either to get along or gold dig however unusual the circumstances are.  

For all of the early warning signs anyone could sense from miles away, our heroine Sigrid takes the plunge unthinkingly and for a little while seems happy in the newfound dysfunctionality.  The quickness with which people will move ahead in an uncertain scenario with loose touching on such shockumentary fare as My Strange Addiction is both satirized and exploited to full effect here.  While the premise of furry horror seems silly if not a bit tawdry, Good Boy doesn’t take these elements where you expect and proceeds to leave you with a finale that doesn’t quite leave you staring blankly at a wall as hard as Speak No Evil did but it comes close.

 
A microbudget but nevertheless scenic yet sterilized effort lensed in 2.35:1 panoramic widescreen by Viljar Bøe himself who also handled editing duties and sneakily cameos in the film as well, Good Boy looks clean and well-groomed.  The soundtrack by Martin Smoge and Isak Wingsternes is suitably chilling and helps to create a mood of unease.  The film primarily rests on the shoulders of Gard Løkke who on the outside seems like the perfect rich golden boy of Sigrid’s dreams but is masking something more mercurial and menacing and Katrine Lovise Øpstad Fredriksen as the naïve nice new girlfriend makes an excellent scream queen who finds herself rapidly in over her head in a dangerous environment whose walls seem to be closing in around her.
 
Dark and disturbing with more questions on mind than it has answers for, Good Boy recently aired on streaming platforms via Saban Films (yes, the same company behind the Power Rangers movies) for rent and purchase.  Pushing into uncanny valley fears first started by Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining followed by Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko and most recently in Hypochondriac, the man in a furry costume as horror element though percolating in film for years is finally at its most fully realized inception here.  

Yes there are the animal robot horror flicks such as The Banana Splits Movie and Willy’s Wonderland leading up to the official Five Nights at Freddy’s film, but few if any thrillers involving people dressing in animal costumes are anywhere near as actively unnerving and finally shocking as this.  Further proof positive the Scandinavians have a knack for finding ways to siphon the soul of an unsuspecting viewer, Good Boy is an inspired little gem of a Nordic horror film that will stay with you long after the end credits have rolled.

--Andrew Kotwicki