Good Boy’s director explains the ending and the movie’s meaning

Good Boy has become one of 2025’s most unexpected small-scale hits. The haunted-house movie from first-time director Ben Leonberg, starring his own Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Indy, earned more than $2.25 million in its opening weekend on a $2.3 million budget, and opened to widely positive reviews. But part of the word of mouth that’s making it a solid indie release may be due to the lingering questions about its cliffhanger ending.

The movie’s clever marketing hinges on a simple emotional hook: Everyone wants to be sure the dog survives. Leonberg, who also happens to be Indy’s real-life owner, spoke with Polygon about the film’s ending, sharing his interpretation and insight into its final moments.

Good Boy follows Indy and his owner Todd (Shane Jensen), as they move from city life to the secluded country home of Todd’s late grandfather. Soon after they arrive, Indy begins to detect strange, supernatural phenomena — shadows, ghostly presences, and unexplained sounds — that are invisible or incomprehensible to humans. As Todd’s health deteriorates and his behavior becomes increasingly erratic, Indy’s loyalty is put to the test.

After Todd finally succumbs to the darkness, he is carried to the basement, where his trusty canine companion follows. Indy attempts to pull his owner back from the darkness, but Todd is too far gone. Completely covered in black gunk, Todd assures Indy he’s a good dog, but that he “can’t save him” and that Todd’s “gotta stay here.” Todd melts into a skeleton and retreats into the darkness, with a whimpering Indy left behind, basement doors closed, and no way to get out. “I always looked at it as, Indy’s at a crossroads,” Leonberg says. “His owner has not been able to escape his fate. And Indy is kind of waiting, and could choose to stay there forever, in that house.”

But in the next scene, we see the basement doors opened by Vera, Todd’s sister, looking for her brother and his dog.

Photo: Danielle Freiberg/IFC Films

“With the sister showing up, it’s the final choice: ‘Do I stay in the darkness, or do I go into the light?’” Leonberg says. “Ultimately, he chooses to go to the light, and we see that in the credits, essentially, that he’s going off with Vera. So I always look at it as a happy ending — that there’s more life ahead for Indy’s character.”

Good Boy’s ending is about choosing life over grief. In the film, Todd’s grandfather also experienced a similar supernatural death alongside his faithful dog, whose remains linger in the same basement where Indy leaves his owner. By choosing to go with Vera, Indy makes the choice the grandfather’s dog should have made.

Good Boy’s ending also works on a deeper level, according to its director. Most ghost stories and haunted house films explore morality in some way, letting people reflect on their own anxieties and concerns about death. But in shifting the perspective to a dog, with no understanding of death, Good Boy completely redefines the genre.

“This story is an inversion of how most people learn about death,” he says. “[Good Boy] just imagines the shoe being on the other foot. What would it be like for a dog who is sensing an ever-growing, closer and closer, invisible, dark force? What would that story be like for them?”