The Fear That Wags Its Tail
Every year, horror finds new ways to make us uncomfortable. But Good Boy (2025), directed by Arielle Kent, did something few films dare — it took loyalty, trust, and companionship, and turned them into the source of pure dread. On the surface, it’s a story about a lonely woman and her pet. Beneath it, it’s a psychological minefield that fans are still trying to decode months after its release.
When the trailer first dropped, people expected a quirky indie horror about a woman’s emotional support animal. What they got was a dark, surreal descent into obsession — where man’s best friend becomes something terrifyingly human.
The Story: When Comfort Turns to Control
The movie opens with Nora (Anya Taylor-Joy), a reclusive graphic designer recovering from a traumatic breakup. She moves into a new apartment complex, hoping to start over — until she meets Eli (Nicholas Hoult), a charming but strange neighbor who introduces her to his “dog,” a man in a realistic canine suit named Max (played by Bill Skarsgård).
Eli insists Max is real, obedient, and “never misbehaves.” At first, Nora laughs it off as a fetish or social experiment — but the longer she spends time with them, the more reality bends. Max growls when she gets too close to Eli. He eats from a bowl but speaks in whispers when no one’s around.
When Eli vanishes halfway through the film, Nora begins hearing scratching behind her walls, growling under her bed, and footsteps that stop when she turns around. Max keeps appearing in her dreams — sometimes begging for help, sometimes smiling with blood on his teeth.
In one of the film’s most haunting sequences, Nora finds Eli’s collar with the tag “Good Boy” — but it’s been freshly engraved with her own name. The final scene leaves viewers divided: Nora wakes up wearing the same dog collar, sitting obediently beside Max, who now speaks clearly, asking, “Are you ready to behave this time?”
Cut to black.
Theories That Bit Deep
The ending of Good Boy set the internet ablaze. Fans immediately started picking apart the film’s cryptic clues, each theory wilder than the last.
- The Split Identity Theory
One of the most popular theories suggests Max never existed — that he represents Nora’s suppressed rage and submission issues after her breakup. Several scenes hint that others never actually see Max interact independently, implying he might be a manifestation of her psyche. The collar scene at the end, then, isn’t supernatural — it’s symbolic of her full mental collapse. - The Cult Theory
Some fans point to Eli’s strange comments about “training” and “obedience” as signs that the film is about a secret obedience cult that dehumanizes people into “pets.” Background details — such as graffiti reading “Sit. Stay. Repeat.” — suggest that Nora was being conditioned from the start, with Eli as her handler. - The Supernatural Bond Theory
A smaller but fascinating theory claims that Max is an ancient entity feeding on loneliness, taking the form of whatever humans love most. His line, “I only stay if you’re good,” implies he attaches to those who crave affection but fear control. This would make Good Boy less of a psychological thriller and more of a quiet demonic possession story disguised as domestic horror.
Arielle Kent fueled this ambiguity in interviews, saying,
“It’s not about a woman and a monster. It’s about what we turn into when we crave to be loved — even if it means losing ourselves.”
Alternate Endings Hidden from View
While the final version stunned audiences with its eerie ambiguity, insiders revealed that Good Boy had two alternate endings.
In the first, Nora manages to kill Max and flee, only to find herself being welcomed by a group of people in dog collars at the edge of town — implying the obedience cult theory.
In the second, Eli returns and treats Max like an actual dog again, feeding him, petting him, and ignoring Nora — who now crawls behind him, barking. Director Kent scrapped this for being “too literal,” opting instead for an ending that left audiences in emotional limbo.
Cinematographer Leo Grant revealed that both deleted endings were shot in grayscale, hinting they may appear as special features on the Blu-ray. “The real ending,” he teased, “depends on who you think’s wearing the leash.”
The Perspective of the Cast on the Madness
Anya Taylor-Joy described the role as “mentally exhausting” and during the interview with IndieWire she stated, “Playing Nora was as if I was drowning in my own set of invisible rules. At any given moment, I was never sure if I was meant to feel frightened, feel guilty, or fall in love.”
During the shooting period, as Nicholas Hoult stated, “even in the production, no one was clear on the essence of the story’s reality.” “Arielle would change dialogue as if it were a game.” “There are days when Max was a man and days when he was not. It’s supposed to be a mystery which one, and that’s why it’s so tense.”
Bill Skarsgård is one of the few who was able to capture Max’s character and still keep a very fine line of sympathy. To perfect the role, he spent weeks with the restriction of speaking. His character, as told by one of the members of the production set, was ” the most convincing man-dog ever to be footage.” It was noted that his behaviour on set was enough to make a few of the crew, who he dubbed as “the most convincing associates of film” very frightened.
Why and how was modern technology utilized to keep the film “Good Boy” as scary as possible?
It is the realistic image of “Good Boy” and the un uncomfortable focus on the details that adds to the thrill of the film, the prosthetic suit worn by Bill Skarsgård, which designed by the use of AI to capture muscular patterns so that the suit could mimic not only animal-like forms, but keep it subtly human. The horror, the eyes, were only Skarsgård’s.
Marina Colt, the sound designer for the movie, stated that most of the crazy growls are not captured from animals but rather distorted version of Skarsgard’s voice slowed down by 600%. “We wanted it to feel like a human sound pretending to be animal,” she said.
As Nora’s sanity begins to break down and becomes colder and violent, the lighting of the apartment begins to change from warm golden textures to sickly greens and then to stark whites. If you pay attention around the third act, the shadows begin taking on elongated forms that resemble dogs. It is a visual representation of how “the pet” is taking over the world of the character.
Arielle Kent put it,
“It’s about not letting yourself get comfortable. We wanted the audience to feel like there was something for them to work apart, to piece the story together and understand. It’s not horror, it’s not empathy. Will Max take care of her and pet her, or will he consume her?”
What happened next was said to be something that was discussed by a majority of people.
“Upon it’s release, Good Boy became one of the most talked about psychological thrillers in 2025. Critics described it as cross of a Black Swan that is mixed with The Babadook, but with teeth. Filmmakers were delighted to see the young heroes on TikTok and Youtube about the film, drawing attention to it’s many hidden clues — like paw prints scratched into the character’s mirror that whisper, ‘Who’s a good girl?’ when the last beat of sound is reversed.
This film provoked arguments surrounding the themes of control and conditioning within various forms of relationships, therefore, fostering a dialog that transcended the horror community. Some considered it feminist horror; others considered it a commentary on emotional codependency.
An online fan theory gained traction that posits the movie’s official site changes, subtly, every week. That theory posits that a new background loses a hallway’s wallpaper to scratches, suggesting that Max is still ‘alive.’ When questioned about it, Kent remarked, “Good boys always come back.”
Good Boy (2025) does not conclude simply because the credits have finished rolling. It does not however, conclude, because imagined increasingly vivid monsters under the bed. It lingers within the soft dong of a clock.
This is not a film about a monster. It is a film about the process of how simple it is to become one.
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