Get a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to get just 8 seconds of footage for the dog-centered horror movie.

Good Boy director filmed dog for 3 years to create horror film told from its POV: See the painstaking process

Get a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to get just 8 seconds of footage for the dog-centered horror movie.

By Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff is an award-winning journalist and staff writer at ** with over 12 years of experience covering all facets of the entertainment industry.

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September 24, 2025 8:00 a.m. ET

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- See an exclusive clip of *Good Boy* director Ben Leonberg and his producer/wife, Kari Fischer, training their beloved pooch, Indy, to star in the dog-centered horror film.

- ** also speaks to Leonberg (and his pup) to break down all of the biggest challenges of making the film, the best doggy bloopers, and more.

- Additionally, Leonberg reveals whether Indy has a future in Hollywood after his big debut.

Talk about a *ruff* production.

*Good Boy*, a supernatural horror film told from a dog's perspective, follows the titular canine as he seeks to protect his owner from malevolent forces in their new home. The film marks Ben Leonberg's feature directorial debut and is based on a script he co-wrote with Alex Cannon.

Leonberg and his producer/wife, Kari Fischer, did not make this first feature experience easy on themselves. There's an old Hollywood adage — "never work with animals or children" — and the duo now know firsthand why.

Instead of using CGI, the film stars the couple's very own good boy, a retriever named Indy, alongside human actors Larry Fessenden, Shane Jensen, and Arielle Friedman. Principal photography — which only included Leonberg, Fischer, and Indy to keep the set as distraction-free as possible — took an eye-popping 400-plus days over the course of three years.

A behind-the-scenes clip, debuting exclusively with **, highlights the extraordinary steps the filmmakers took to get just *eight* seconds of footage with Indy, who had no formal movie training prior to the film.

Indy the dog stars in horror movie 'Good Boy'.

Ahead, EW catches up with Leonberg (and Indy, who was napping during this interview) to break down the biggest challenges, the best doggy bloopers, Indy's hilarious reaction to a fake version of himself, and more.

**: What came first, the idea for the film or Indy?**

**BEN LEONBERG: **Certainly, the idea for the film. I think the idea might even predate his grandparents' existence. I journal and keep a lot of notes, and I think the earliest note I have for the concept was: "Haunted house film, but from the perspective of a dog."

It's a play on an old trope, and I'm sure I wrote it in the diary while watching *Poltergeist*, and if you remember, that film begins with the golden retriever wandering around the house, clearly clued into the haunting before anybody else.

I first thought of that in 2012, we didn't get Indy until 2017, and I'd already been working on the film for quite a while at that point, just trying to crack the concept. It took us a long time to figure out how to even write a story and what a script even looks like that isn't driven by dialogue; it's more action, perspective, and point of view.

**The above clip encapsulates how much work went into getting just a few usable seconds of footage. Did you ever think about throwing in the towel?**

It's a great question. I mean, the answer is like, yeah, of course, yes. It's probably not any different than what a director feels when they're working with an actor who just can't get the line right. Or it's maybe a little different, because at least the actor agrees on the reality of the premise that they are indeed making a movie. The times when nothing is going catastrophically wrong, but the dog has no concept that he's in a film, he's completely wandering off set to chase a squirrel, it seems like things are really going off the rails, even though *he's* having the time of his life. For us, when we were making it, we were slowly chipping away at it. From the clip you see, we just get a shot a day.

To start making the movie, I built everything out as a very loose storyboard. You can't storyboard it with the level of specificity that this is exactly what the shot's going to be, just because Indy is an X-factor, he can't hit an exact mark, and he can't do timing the way a human actor would. So you plan it out as much as you can and you layer in the shots as you're getting them, which is frequently just one or two a day. And I would say for the first year of filmmaking, I really have to give my wife, who's the co-producer of the film, and also the person you see lying on the ground queuing Indy, credit. There are lots of strange positions we had to put ourselves in to make him look at the right thing. She really trusted that this was going to work, and we started getting bigger parts of scenes together.

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**In this clip, we also meet Findy — fake Indy. Tell me about him and Indy's reaction to this stuffed version of himself.**

Indy is confused, perplexed, and sometimes enamored with the fake version of himself. You see him running off because he thinks it's a chew toy. So I don't think he really recognizes himself in it. It's funny for us, obviously. We got it because of Indy's attention span — probably the biggest thing in prep was thinking about how much attention span he has. But we first got fake Indy as a stand-in for lighting. He's not exactly the right size, but he's close enough to the right coloring, and we had him custom-made, which is a whole funny story — trying to get it as close as possible so we could set up the lights.

We usually planned for Indy to have a three-hour window. He can almost never go past that, and frequently, he could do much less than that, so we wanted to make the most of that time. So I would spend the day essentially before the sun went down setting up the shot [using Findy] and getting everything ready because it was just me and my wife for principal photography, which was the only Indy stuff. So we were doing a lot. We were also standing in as the human talent while filming, while also making it rain, and queuing special effects. It's not a normal way to make a movie, but it was a lot of fun.

Indy as the titular 'Good Boy'.

**You mentioned that making Findy was a funny story, so now you've gotta tell me why.**

So, we got him from a company that I think primarily exists to build these things as memorials for dogs, for lost pets, and they actually are standard-made — and I said, *No, I don't need this feature* — with a zip-up the middle to put their ashes inside of, and that feels like a different kind of horror movie. [*Laughs*] There is something very uncanny about it, but Indy thinks it is a toy at least.

**A big thing in this clip is getting Indy's line of sight correct. Would you say that was the biggest challenge of working with a dog movie star?**

I think the eye line was a constant challenge, but I wouldn't say it was the biggest. We just had to constantly change up the stimuli we were giving him. Certainly, talking to him, you hear us in the clip saying "stay, stay" — most dogs, if you tell them that, will look at you, but they're also waiting for what comes next, what happens when I don't have to stay. So sometimes, depending on the kind of reaction we're trying to get, we can't just say "stay." Sometimes I would put my fingers together, which he would learn meant, *'Oh, Dad might have a piece of food in his hand.' I better look and pay attention*.

But other times, a lot of the expressions that people interpret in the film as scared and alarmed or vexed by the invisible forces are the results of things on set that are just bizarre and kind of hilarious. We would say words to him in the tone of a command that doesn't make any sense, like, "Indy, 'neon sign.'" And he would give a classic dog head tilt.

We'd also use physical gestures. Like I said, he's curious. I remember once, it was probably getting towards the end of his attention span, but he was standing in the exact right spot, and I was thinking in real time, while the cameras were rolling, *What can I do to get him to do something else on top of his performance*? And strange words weren't doing anything. So I just took off my shoe and put it on my head.

'Good Boy' star Indy poses with owner and director Ben Leonberg at SXSW 2025.

Robby Klein/Getty

**Do you have any favorite Indy bloopers?**

Controlling his motion was always challenging. And there are times where, what I want him to do is walk into a room and freeze because he sees something alarming — and we're saying "whoa," like dog-speak for "stop." But instead, he just keeps going and appears to plow into the supernatural force or jump up or gleefully run into what is supposed to be the supernatural scary thing. That's one of those examples that wouldn't happen with a human — a human actor would know better than this. So, yeah, I would say there were times when he would bring an energy so different [than what we needed]. And again, he doesn't know he's in a movie, which is the joy and the challenge of this all.

'Good Boy' poster.

**Does Indy have a career in Hollywood after *Good Boy*?**

I mean, there's interest. What makes Indy really special [in this movie] is the way we made it, which was using time as a resource, which is very different than the way most films are made. He can work three-hour chunks, but if movies are filmed over 60 days, multiply that by four to get to your standard 12-hour day — I don't know if most productions would ever want to do something like that. So I mean, I think he's retired and very happy. But if the right dog food brand wants to make a Super Bowl commercial, we'll certainly entertain it. He loves to work. It's more about who would have the resources to pull it off. So we'll see.**

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