Hire a Furry; Good Boy

Another day with friends, another attempt to watch an interesting horror film. The concept was intriguing, but the third act execution fell apart for plot reasons. I will go over the movie for this review because I find the story itself interesting, but I don’t think it’s worth the watch for a normal viewer.

Previously, I re-watched Cocaine Bear with my friends and this time, we found another horror film centered on an animal—a dog…kind of. Major spoilers ahead, but the concept for this Norwegian film is that two guys live together as roommates, but one of them lives like a dog. He’s dressed up in a terrible furry costume, staying low to the ground at all times. During the film, the non-dog roommate finds a date and introduces her to his pet dog. With a run time of only an hour and sixteen minutes, they don’t add anything extra that isn’t necessary to the plot, but that doesn’t mean everything was well executed. If you have gotten this far and are interested in the movie, give it a watch.

This synopsis sounds intriguing, why is this guy dressed up like a dog? Is this kink? Is he forced? At the start, you see the two roommates interacting as human and dog. The dog suit looks like carpet or floor mat material, while the mask resembles that of a dogs face; the mask being the only good part of the outfit. We’re just thrown into this situation with no context, trying to solve this mystery as we watch along. The human man meets with a woman for a date, they hit it off, and she goes back to his place and spends the night. Dog roommate is not shown to her till morning, where she leaves right away. Her leaving immediately was a good choice. The man did not warn her about this situation and for most people, seeing someone walk around as a dog is not the norm. But, the man gives her a ride back home. Giving her a ride back home is not the issue, but the fact that he drops her off at her front door? Is she not worried about this weird man? Letting him know her exact address is okay with her? I will go ahead and spoil that this does not matter for the movie, but this detail shows how much thought they had for their lead female character.

Now back home, the woman also has a roommate, but one who doesn’t dress up as a furry. The woman explains how her date went to her roommate and the roommate brings up a good point about the dog, what if it’s just a kink? They literally look up a video of people explaining how they do this kink for fun and that there is a community of people out there who enjoy this. And I have to give it to them, this seems plausible. There is a furry community out there that has grown thanks to the internet, connecting people with these similar interests. As a viewer who knows this is a horror film, you want to tell the woman to not go back. This surely won’t end well due to the genre of the movie, but she doesn’t know that. Plus, the roommate also reveals that her date is a rich orphaned man, bringing up the fact that if they got together, she wouldn’t have to worry about school and her future. With the given context of the situation, her debating going back for another date actually makes sense—which she does.

She goes over to his place again for dinner and a chance for him to explain their situation. He tells her his dog roommate acts this way by choice and that they are both lonely individuals who support each other. Believing him, she decides to give the relationship a chance and treats his dog roommate as a dog, since those are his wishes…supposedly. They discuss more about the roommate’s situation, the woman curious about his urges, like sex. Jokingly, she offers up to sleep with the dog. After another night or two together, the man suggests they go to a cabin for the weekend; a mini vacation to get out of the city—with the dog of course. The woman agrees, and as the man leaves the room, she is alone with the dog. True horror movie fashion, the dog moves his mask and reveals that he’s held hostage. Both he and the woman need to escape this situation because the man is a menace who is forcing him to wear the ridiculous dog outfit. Stunned, the woman is speechless as the dog puts his mask back on and the man re-enters the room.

The middle of the movie plot twist—something had to be amiss.

Dinner is ready and the woman is unable to hold anything down after the information she just learned, so she goes to the bathroom to throw up. Now the question comes up, why doesn’t she just leave? Well if she does, what about the man pretending to be a dog? We assume the woman is a morally good person. She is willing to be open minded and to accept another person’s kink, it’s believable that she would want to help the dog roommate get out of this situation. So, off to the cabin the trio go. Throughout the weekend the woman is anxious, and this intensifies when the man suggests they put their phones in a box, hidden away, so no one disturbs them. One point she tries to leave the cabin but the door is locked from the inside. The man catches her and she talks her way out of the situation, suggesting she takes the dog out for a walk to get acquainted. Man agrees and they leave the cabin. The woman and dog talk outside in the woods, the dog being extra cautious, believing the man could be listening or be nearby at any moment. Not willing to just run away in fear of the man finding him, he suggests the woman kill the man as the dog does not have the courage to do so himself. They go back to the cabin as the woman contemplates this suggestion, as she also does not want to be a killer.

So far I have no issues with this. The dog man probably has Stockholm syndrome, believing that he simply cannot leave and is stuck with the man; the woman just trying to be a good person to help him, but now also fears for her life in this situation. During their stay in the cabin, the woman is unable to hide her anxiety whenever interacting with the man. She tries to get her phone back saying she must contact her mom. The man brings her phone and makes her call her mom on speaker. After this fails, the man simply thinks the woman is just addicted to her phone, which is plausible as that is a real life situation that feels true with some people. She hides a knife under her pillow, but the man wants to change the bed sheets, so she offers to do it herself. The man says he’s very particular about things like this but trusts her to do the task properly. After she takes a shower, he confronts her about the bed. She’s worried that he found the knife, but he’s really just pulling a prank, trying to be cute with her. As he leaves the room, he stops, and goes back to her, trying to seduce her for sex. This makes sense for him as he does not know she knows the truth, he is still in the honeymoon phase. But as he is holding her close and kissing her, the woman feels disgusted, telling him to stop in a serious manner, slapping him in the process. This is the turning point for the man—this is when he starts to think something is amiss.

During dinner, she becomes unconscious, probably drugged, and wakes up in the bed. She searches for the knife under the pillow that is no longer there. The man confronts the woman, revealing that the he had a hidden recording device on the dog and knows that she knows the truth. An argument takes place, the man confronts the dog as well, upset with both of them. During the confrontation, the dog bites the man’s hand, giving time for the woman to grab the keys and exit the cabin, leaving both behind. This is the point of the movie that I believe takes this story downhill.

The woman runs off into the woods, scared, and feeling helpless; she falls to the ground screaming for help until she passes out. Watching this scene annoys me. I get why she could be upset, crying, and screaming for help. Having her just take a nap, in the middle of the woods while she is running from a violent man—is dumbfounding. This turns into another horror movie where the girl just accepts her fate to die and cries. In reality, they needed an excuse to show a scene of the man torturing the dog in the barn. The barn was mentioned earlier by the dog when he explained to the woman why he couldn’t just run, leaving us to wonder what exactly happens in the barn. While the woman ran off, the man drags the dog to the barn. Inside, he forces the dog in his cage, puts on a noise canceling headset, and starts blasting music through big speakers. While this is happening, the man also swings a baseball bat at the dog’s cage, beating it up, and screaming at the dog. After some time, the man drags the dog out the cage, takes him to a chair, sits down, and lays the dog on his lap, face down. He opens the dogs butt flap and starts spanking him. This moment, I also disliked—did not seem like something the man would do in my opinion. He has treated this man like a dog, emphasizes how much he is a dog and should be treated as such, but is now spanking his butt like you would to a child, a human child.

While the spanking is going on, the woman enters the barn with a big stick. The man still has the noise canceling headset on, so he does not hear her sneak up on him and whack him over the head. While the man is on the floor, the woman grabs the dog and tries to help carry him outside. The man gets up, and stops them both. Cut to black, time has passed and we see the dog in his cage, back inside the cabin. At the start of the movie, the man fed the dog cooked meat, similar to a human meal. In this scene, the dog is now being fed dog food. The man walks to the barn and we see another person dressed up in a similar outfit, the woman, wagging her butt like a dog as the man enters to feed her. Are people looking for her? We assume no. During the date we learned that the woman is not close to her parents; the only friend or other person we see her talk to, is her roommate. Sure the roommate knows she went to see this man, but she was also telling the woman to stay with him because he was handsome and rich. She probably thinks the woman left to stay with him and his dog, not knowing her true fate. But, the movie does not end here. Jump cut, the man is back inside his house and puts down a dog food bowl. Slowly, we see a baby/toddler crawl over to the bowl in an animal onesie. Credits.

During this write up, I’ve looked up other reviews and posts online to see how people felt about the movie. Critics rate this movie well on Rotten Tomatoes, while the audience think otherwise. I get why critics would praise this movie, the ending hook of the child makes this movie feel unsettling. But does that make this is a good movie? I don’t think so. I like the ending, especially, because it’s never told whose child that is, but we can assume it’s at least the woman’s. Some think it could belong to the man since she threw up during the weekend cabin trip, but would she get morning sickness that fast if she was pregnant? In my opinion, and others as well, the child belongs to the dog. Earlier the woman jokingly says she would have sex with the dog. Now being a dog herself, I believe this is what actually happened. I’ve seen others point out that could be why in the barn she acted enthusiastically to see the man, because she wants to see her child and is willing to act however, to see them. Plus, since the child was bred by two dogs, the child could be perceived as a true dog from birth.

Now, for the most part I enjoyed this movie. My main issue is the woman. I don’t think the actress did anything wrong, but the writers for this movie just did not make her a likable person. While watching the movie, a friend of mine said early on that if she dies, she deserves it—and honestly, yeah. From the start of the movie she lets this man, who she barely knows, and was weirded out by after seeing his pet, lets him drive her to her house. As in, he knows her address and can find her. Plus, they met on a dating app, like is this her first time? Has no one warned her about stalkers? Then near the end, when she finally escapes, instead of doing something productive she falls to the floor and falls asleep. Really? She is scared for her life and just passes out? Then when she comes back to save the dog, she hits the guy over the head, once. Does not check if the man is knocked out, just sees him fall to the floor and immediately stops looking at him. If someone tried to kill me and I knocked them out, I would at least be looking over my shoulder in case they get back up. I feel like they wanted their twisted ending but could not figure out a way to capture the girl, unless they made her weak and dumb. Do you know how much more horrifying it would be if this girl was strong willed, fought back, and still lost? Watching this movie early on, I believed the woman would lose and get turned into a dog. Throughout the movie they proved me right. Yes, the concept is good, but there was no depth. That’s boring.

Also, for a rich dude forcing these people to wear a furry suit, I would be so upset if I was a furry. Their outfits are ugly. The only thing that resembles a dog is the mask. As soon as you look at their fur, that doesn’t even match the mask, they obviously look fake. There’s an actual person out there who spent thousands of dollars to make a realistic dog suit that really looks believable. Why could this rich man not afford that? Their dog suit looks handmade by someone for the first time. “Well if he tried to get outside help, wouldn’t someone find it weird he wants a realistic dog suit?” No, they established that it’s acceptable to have this kind of kink and a community of people out there exist. I will say in the video the woman and roommate watched, the people were dressed normally acting like a dog, but c’mon. Furries exist. Heck, even a furry suit would have looked better than the outfit they picked for the movie. Plus, when the woman went on her date with the man for the first time, she dressed really casual. Like, if this man did not have ulterior motives, I bet he would have left. He wore a nice suit, to a nice looking restaurant, and she looks like she came from a jog or just ran errands and forgot about their date last minute. She even showed up to the date late, like, they made the woman an unlikable character. Why would I be upset that she lost? Yeah, what happened to her is messed up, but I was never rooting for her during the movie.

Here are some recommendations for other similar genre stories, but better. Barbarian, came out the same year, had strong twists, and a smart female lead. I would highly recommend this movie if you saw Good Boy. First half of Death Note, back and forth rivalry where either side could win and seems plausible. The Menu, not as twisted of a story, but at least the lead woman in this movie will fight back.

Did I plan to make this review this long? No. I was just going to give my thoughts and an overall synopsis, but it turned into a whole breakdown of the movie. What can I say, once I start passionately writing about something I just can’t stop; looking at you Netflix Avatar.

TLDR; Interesting movie concept, but nothing really new for the genre.