Dog horror tale “Good Boy” gets expanded opening after film teaser exceeds 1 million views — see the trailer

Key points

• The horror movie Good Boy is receiving a wide theatrical release.

• The film, which explores a haunted house from a dog's perspective, was originally intended to get a limited release.

• The trailer for Good Boy garnered over 1 million views and prompted concern for the canine main character's safety.

An independent horror movie is fetching an expanded release.

Good Boy, a haunted house film told from the perspective of a dog, will now receive a wide release from IFC. The company previously planned to only exhibit the film theatrically in a limited release.

The news comes in the wake of the first trailer for the movie barking up over 1 million views on YouTube within four days.

Good Boy stars Indy, the real-life pet of writer-director Ben Leonberg, as a dog (also named Indy) who tries to warn his owner (Shane Jensen) of evil supernatural forces encroaching on their rural farmhouse.

The film premiered at SXSW in March to rave reviews, and currently holds a 95 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 20 reviews as of publication.

The viral trailer for the movie spawned immediate widespread concern for Indy's well-being, as Google searches for prompts like "does the dog in Good Boy die" jumped by over 2,000 percent, according to IndieWire.

The trailer for Good Boy, which can be viewed above, begins with heartwarming archival footage of Indy playing with his owner.

"Man's best friend," text on the screen reads. "Always by your side."

The preview then takes a menacing turn. "Through the good times/And…" the text continues before transitioning to spooky nighttime footage of Indy investigating a mysterious thumping sound. The dog heads down the stairs to find a man groggily slamming his head into a door.

From there, most of the trailer consists of rapid-fire flashes of unsettling imagery, including a man yelling with blood dripping from his mouth, muddy human footsteps on a hardwood floor, blood rinsing down a bathtub drain, and a distressed shriek from Indy.

The trailer ends with the canine protagonist watching a videotape of a man seemingly accepting his untimely fate.

"I guess I'm next," he says. "I should never have come here."

A threatening figure then emerges in the background behind Indy.

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Good Boy also stars Larry Fessenden, Arielle Friedman, Anya Krawcheck, and Stuart Rudin. The film hits theaters on Oct. 3.

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