I Put Off Good Boy After Losing My Dog, But Finally Watching It Helped Me Grieve

(Image credit: Shudder)

Spoiler Warning: The following piece contains major spoilers for Good Boy. If you have yet to watch the new horror movie, please turn back now.

When I first heard about Good Boy hitting the 2025 movie schedule, I added it to my list of films I had to see before the end of the year. However, a few days after the much-talked-about horror flick came out, I had to put my dog, Hank, down after 12 years of him being a part of my family. Obviously, I was in no place to watch a movie about a dog trying to rescue his owner from a supposed supernatural entity. My grief, so fresh and encompassing, simply wouldn’t allow it.

That all changed when Good Boy started streaming with a Shudder subscription. I decided to give it a watch and see if I was ready. Though my pain and sorrow are still immense, watching this inventive horror movie ended up helping me start the next stage of the grieving process. Allow me to explain…

Indy the dog outside in woods in "Good Boy" horror film. — (Image credit: IFC/Shutter)

It Helped Me Remember The Importance Of Letting Go

As anyone who’s watched Good Boy knows, this is a movie about letting go and choosing to live instead of being weighed down by past trauma and loss. What’s sold as a horror film about a dog trying to save his owner from a supernatural entity in a remote home deep in the woods becomes something more impactful and personal: a dog trying to save his owner from death, which is a losing fight. Though the roles are reversed in my case, I kept thinking about the efforts my wife and I made to save Hank and then make his final days, hours, and minutes as joyful and painless as possible.

I’m still plagued by intrusive thoughts telling me that I didn’t do enough, or acted too late, or should have known something was wrong sooner. However, the central message of accepting death and learning to let go served as a catalyst for my grieving process. Letting go doesn’t mean you love a person or pet any less, and I really needed to hear that.

Indy the dog hiding under a bed in the 2025 horror film Good Boy. — (Image credit: IFC)

Still, Todd’s Final Words To Indy Hit So Damn Hard

That said, this movie still left me emotionally wrecked, and made me cry more than anything else that came out this year (28 Years Later and its touching “Memento Mori/Memento Amoris” sequence came in a close second). As it became clear that Indy’s owner, Todd, wasn’t being haunted by a supernatural entity but instead a mysterious illness that was slowly killing him, I couldn’t stop thinking about death and those I’ve lost recently. Things reached a whole other level when Todd gave Indy some final words:

You’re a good dog. But you can’t save me. You gotta stay here.

Those words have stuck with me ever since finishing the movie, and have led me to think a great deal about death, grief, and moving on. We can’t carry over with our beloved family members and pets, but we can carry on.

Despite making me extremely sad at times, Good Boy is one of my favorite movie experiences of the year. And like Hank, it’s something I won’t ever forget.

Stream Good Boy on Shudder.

Philip grew up in Louisiana (not New Orleans) before moving to St. Louis after graduating from Louisiana State University-Shreveport. When he's not writing about movies or television, Philip can be found being chased by his three kids, telling his dogs to stop barking at the mailman, or chatting about professional wrestling to his wife. Writing gigs with school newspapers, multiple daily newspapers, and other varied job experiences led him to this point where he actually gets to write about movies, shows, wrestling, and documentaries (which is a huge win in his eyes). If the stars properly align, he will talk about For Love Of The Game being the best baseball movie of all time.

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