Tales of the Weird: Good Boy
A Norwegian thriller that tries to be shocking doesn't quite get beyond its basic premise.
Good Boy
Written and directed by Viljar Bøe
2022
When it comes to horror that trades in ideas that are strange or shocking, it takes a lot to stand out. Some movies go the “extreme horror” route, presenting transgressive imagery or behavior that pushes well beyond the bounds of good taste. Others present striking ideas that are crazy enough that you just can’t look away. Good Boy, a Norwegian film from 2022, tries to take the latter route, being about a guy who has a “pet” that is actually a person in a dog suit. When we get introduced to the concept, Christian (Gard Løkke) is hanging around his house, treating Frank (Nicolai Narvesen Lied) like a dog, including feeding him from a bowl on the floor, walking him around the yard, scratching him on the head, and not giving him any regard as anything other than an animal. We also see him scroll through Tinder before matching with Sigrid (Katrine Lovise Øpstad Fredriksen) and making plans to meet up for a date. Thus, we’re waiting for the moment when she finds out about his lifestyle, wondering how she’ll react.
When they do meet up, it seems to be a bit of a mismatch. Christian gets all dressed up, and he’s there on time, seeming to be eagerly anticipating their potential match. Sigrid, on the other hand, is so late that he’s just about to leave before she gets there, and she’s dressed casually, basically wearing sweat pants. She also ignores him to look at her phone right away, and after he quizzes her about what she does, he finds out she’s taking a one-year psychology course of study because her grades weren’t good enough to get into a bachelor’s degree program. While she generally enjoys being at school, she isn’t sure if this field of study is right for her. She seems to have a fair amount of red flags, not really the best choice for a guy who seems fairly well put together, even if we know he has a big red flag of his own waiting at home.
As the date proceeds, Christian comes off as kind of shy and awkward, which actually seems to charm Sigrid a bit. He does mention his dog, and when she asks about the breed, Christian just says it’s hard to explain. Eventually, the two of them seem to hit it off well enough that he invites her back to his house, and she’s impressed enough by its size and his apparent level of wealth that she sleeps with him. But lurking outside the bedroom, we see Frank, just waiting to reveal himself. And sure enough, when the couple is greeted in the morning in the manner of a typical pet wanting some attention, Sigrid is shocked, and she’s ready to walk out. Christian offers to explain, but she’s not interested; she just wants to get out of this weird scene (she still asks him for a ride though).
After getting back to her dorm, Sigrid relates the story to her friend Aurora (Amalie Willoch Njaastad), who mostly seems amused by the whole thing. But when Sigrid shows Aurora a photo of Christian, she recognizes him as the son of a well-known multimillionaire, making Sigrid rethink whether the human pet thing is too weird to put up with. Before long, she’s getting back in touch with Christian, offering to hear him out and potentially get to know Frank, thinking that maybe this is just a bit of quirkiness that she can tolerate.
Of course, since we know what kind of movie this is, we can’t expect this to just be a bit of strangeness that eventually makes some sort of sense. Things are going to take a bad turn at some point; we’re just not sure when. Christian assures her that Frank wants to be treated like a dog, and he has trusted Christian to treat him well and provide everything he needs. When they do meet, Frank seems to get a bit aggressive, leading Christian to scold him harshly, but Sigrid seems to brush it off, as if he’s an actual dog that just got a bit too exuberant.
Soon enough, they’re all acting almost like a family, with Sigrid spending time at Christian’s house, the group of them all taking walks together, and Frank seeming to enjoy the apparent new addition to the family. Soon, Christian makes plans for the three of them to spend a weekend together at a cabin in the country, and we’re left to wonder what’s going to go down. Will Christian be revealed as an insane tyrant who is forcing someone to behave as an animal? Or are he and Frank working together, with plans to do something horrible to Sigrid?
Unfortunately, when the other shoe drops, it takes the least interesting and most predictable route, and the movie turns into a bit of a generic thriller. (I’ll go ahead and reveal what happens here, so if you care about spoilers, skip to the final paragraph.) Sure enough, Christian is the bad guy, which is revealed when Sigrid and Frank have a moment alone, giving Frank the chance to speak and urge her to get away before it’s too late. This leads to a bit of suspense as we wonder whether Christian will find out what she knows, while he’s also keeping her trapped in the cabin by locking the doors under the pretense of safety and confiscating her phone by saying that they should have a weekend free of electronics. When he eventually snaps, he abuses Frank a bunch, and he eventually forces Sigrid into subjugation of her own, leading to a fairly disturbing final moment in which, after an apparent jump forward in time, he’s raising a young child to be a dog (whether it’s his own child or the result of “breeding” by his two “pets” is unclear).
In the end, the movie ends up being fine, but I feel like if it had gone a bit harder, it could have been something truly striking and memorable, making for a new cult classic. It could have taken a few different approaches in doing so, taking steps to make things extra disturbing rather than being a portrait of a guy who is weird and almost certainly sinister. For one, Sigrid could have developed more of a relationship with Christian before things took a turn. The movie could have taken some time to see Sigrid get to know Christian better, perhaps accepting quirks that seem troubling because she’s getting to like him so much while also continuing to be blinded by the possibility of a life of luxury. We did get some hints that Christian was preying on her weaknesses a bit, taking advantage of those aforementioned red flags and seeming just charming enough to get past her defenses. He could have slowly pushed her into situations that were more and more uncomfortable, finally culminating in the revelation of his true intentions.
As part of that approach, the movie could have drawn out the suspense more, creating a near-unbearable situation that seemed to be teetering on the edge of violence before Christian finally snapped. Instead, even after the big reveal, we get scenes of him behaving mostly normally, acting friendly and pretending that his demands are reasonable, while still doing things like letting Sigrid take Frank on a walk alone so the two of them can talk and potentially plan an escape. Pushing his behavior into something truly menacing, in which you couldn’t predict what he was going to do, whether he would snap, and what sorts of violent behavior might erupt, would have been much more effective.
And of course, the movie could have pushed things into really disturbing territory. When Christian does turn violent, he mostly just seems to beat Frank a bunch while screaming incoherently. He puts a plastic bag over Frank’s head, nearly suffocating him, then he sticks him in a cage, places speakers blaring loud music nearby, and pounds on the cage with a baseball bat. As a finale, he tears away Frank’s costume and spanks his bare butt. While all of this would be unpleasant, it’s not exactly horrific. Christian also pretty much ignores Sigrid, giving her a chance to escape and not paying attention as she sneaks up and hits him over the head from behind. He only prevails when she pulls the stupid move of walking away without making sure he is incapacitated, allowing him to get up and easily defeat her.
All of this would have been much more effective if there was something truly transgressive going on. Maybe he could have pushed her to act dominant toward Frank during their relationship before taking things too far and becoming abusive. The film definitely could have come up with some more upsetting punishments and acts of violence that Christian could have committed after his true nature was revealed. It didn’t necessarily need to go into full torture porn territory or involve the threat of sexual violence, but what we got wasn’t much different than any other depiction of a guy being violent toward someone else. There just wasn’t enough there to distinguish this movie as something especially memorable.
I don’t want to make it seem like I’m a script doctor who knows the best way to make movies or anything, but it seems like a shame that a movie with the potential to be an all-timer of a cult classic ended up being nothing more than an intriguing premise and a disappointing execution. If you’re going to make something weird and unique, you should really go for it, at least to the point that you can get sickos like me to fully pay attention.