Turns out dog is both man and filmmaker’s best friend. After wracking up a huge number of trailer views in a mere five days on IFC Films’ YouTube Channel, an out-of-the-box horror film told a strange POV has been upgraded from a limited to a wide release to capitalize on the instant audience response. The trailer’s performance includes more than 1.6 million views on the official channel, and an additional 1.5 million views on IGN’s channel, bringing the total to nearly 3 million views in less than a week. Clearly, the widespread interest is there.
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According to IndieWire, upcoming low budget horror Good Boy is now moving from the initially planned limited to a full wide release starting October 3. It looks like Good Boy is poised to follow in the footsteps of recent IFC horror hits like last year’s Late Night with the Devil and In a Violent Nature, which grossed $10 million and $4.2 million respectively and both reached over 1,000 screens during their theatrical runs. While IFC hasn’t provided the exact number of screens Good Boy will be playing on, the strong response to the trailer suggest that the horror film will see similar numbers, if not more. In fact, we may very well have a sleeper hit, or at the very least, a cult classic on our hands.
The official description for Good Boy reads “A loyal dog moves to a rural family home with his owner Todd, only to discover supernatural forces lurking in the shadows. As dark entities threaten his human companion, the brave pup must fight to protect the one he loves most.” Starring co-writer and director Ben Leonberg’s actual Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Indy, the film premiered earlier this year at SXSW to rave reviews, where it currently boasts at 95% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Naturally, given Good Boy‘s all the buzz the horror flick has generated searches wondering if Indy dies in the film also spiked by more than 2,000% since the trailer’s release.
Good Boy is the Latest in a Promising Trend for Original Theatrical Storytelling
Though it seems that studios and tech companies are quick to declare theatrical distribution dead, a steady stream of over-performing horror films in 2025 have proven them wrong. Ryan Coogler’s period vampire horror epic Sinners grossed $365 million worldwide and is already being mentioned for awards contention, while Zach Cregger’s Weapons currently dominates at the box office and has surpassed $100 million domestically.
Good Boy lacks the star power or well known auteur’s behind either aforementioned film, but it’s message clear — people want to see fresh, original stories. Concurrently, the post-COVID and strikes slump of the last five years has also seemed to create the perfect breeding ground for inventive and ingenious indies like Good Boy to flourish.
“Last year was our second-best theatrical year ever and we want to continue that,” Scott Shooman, head of IFC Entertainment Group told IndieWire. “We see an opportunity as the studios are moving to three- and four-quadrant business for the indies to try and find interesting, noisy product and try to make it as big as possible.”
Whereas studios and streamers strive to minimize risk as much as possible, it seems that IFC’s risk on Good Boy will pay off in dividends for the distributor when it hits theaters in October. We only hope the powers that be will take note, and of course, Indy makes it to the end of his starring horror vehicle unharmed.
Good Boy hits theaters October 3rd.
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