Into The Dark: Good Boy Review: Is It Good?

The Blumhouse and HULU collaboration Into The Dark has returned to give the fans more thrills, chills, and scares. Every episode of this horror anthology is broadcast on a monthly basis and is grounded in a holiday falling on that month.

Good Boy is based on the Pet Appreciation Week, which was in June. The show gives Judy Greer, the perpetual female sidekick, to shine in a lead role, which makes Good Boy better than the rest.

1. Quick Review

The Good Boy episode of Into The Dark works because of the dark humor and adorable innocence that Judy Greer brings to the screen. The underlying theme of anxiety and finally being able to rid yourself of it, with the help of a killer monster pet, is silly yet relatable.

Judy Greer is the Dog-Mom who showers her terrier with love and affection and chooses to remain oblivious to the darker side of her pet.

2. Info & Watch Links

3. Is It Worth Watching?

Into The Dark has functioned on the premise of giving studios and directors complete independence on their scripts. But they have had to work on a constrained budget, which means that more often than not, episodes of Into The Dark are scripts which could’ve done better with polished cinematography and editing.

Into the Dark: Good Boy - Trailer (Official) | Hulu

Good Boy doesn’t suffer from that malady as most of the actual gore takes place off-screen, and you are caught up in the relationship between a terrier mix, his owner, and the pool of blood they’re surrounded with.

I. Plot

The story of Good Boy revolves around a journalist named Maggie. She is in her forties and finds herself recently unemployed in LA after her newspaper; The Valley Yeller decides to go digital.

The loss of her job comes on top of Maggie’s already spiraling anxiety regarding her non-existent love-life.

On her way out, Maggie’s boss, played by Steve Guttenberg, advises her to get a comfort and emotional support animal to help with her anxiety. Maggie heeds his advice and soon finds herself adopting a small, adorable terrier mix named Reuben.

Maggie makes the dog an outlet for her mid-life crisis and goes full Dog-Mom on it. She starts getting Reuben and herself matching outfits and carries him around everywhere. Soon, a strange pattern starts emerging, as any person who becomes a cause for anxiety for Maggie ends up dead.

As police investigators start looking into the brutal mauling of the victims, we are forced to ask whether such a small dog could cause so much damage. Has Maggie lost her grip on herself or does she not realize what she has brought home?

II. Detailed Review

The primary reason behind the positive reception of Good Boy is Judy Greer. Her performance is a mixture of calm and crazy and comes off as believable. She emerges herself into the mid-life crisis of her character and bonds with Reuben generating genuine love.

Greer is charismatic, and her eccentric character is fun to watch. She makes dull dialogue sound funny, and Good Boy leaps on the dark jokes about the killings. As she bonds with the dog, she gets more confident and happy, while Reuben is happily eliminating all sources of trouble from Maggie’s life.

Tyler MacIntyre, director of Tragedy Girls and Patchwork, makes sure that Good Boy can deal out a helpful serving of grim visuals and gore in a limited budget. The one thing this episode lacks is that we never see Reuben in his transformed demonic self or hunting or viciously attacking his prey.

All of this happens off-screen and is implied when the terrier rushes in with a pitter-patter of his paws, which are soaked in blood. But the aftermath of the corpses is shown complete with pools of blood, ripped intestines, and mutilated bodies, which is enough to get the point across.

The relationship between Maggie and Reuben is also genuinely adorable if you take out the killer demon dog aspect. She finds comfort, support, and stability in a dog that numerous men have been unable to give her. Reuben wants to make his mistress happy by any means necessary, and this relationship helps in the obsessed dog owner narrative.

4. Grade

5. Final Thoughts

The adorable story of a single woman and her support dog gets a gruesome twist in the Good Boy installment of Into The Dark. It overcomes a barrier that many episodes couldn’t in that Good Boy doesn’t feel stretched out. Judy Greer gives a fitting performance, blending humor and horror and keeping the viewers entertained. If that isn’t enough, you have an adorable dog in the mix.