KENNELED (2026)

New streaming on Screambox from Cinescape!
Directed by Jay Burleson.
Written by H.K. Moore.
Check out the
trailer here!

Down on his luck artist Walker (Jack Ryan Beckner) needs money pronto-squanto and decides to put up a flyer advertising his services as a dog walker, under the name “Walker Puppy Wrangler.” Soon, Walker gets a call from a client for a job to walk a very special dog. But Walker’s new client isn’t like other dogs. This dog is a man in a dog suit who never breaks the act of being a dog named Doug (Dan Cutts). Freaked out at first, Walker soon comes to appreciate his high paying client even though his girlfriend Kylie (Emily Ferguson) thinks it’s beyond weird. Walker soon gets caught up in the strange world of Doug, a neighborhood full of people acting like animals and their wealthy owners.

GOOD BOY, not the 2025 movie about the dog taking on ghosts haunting his owner, is a 2022 Norwegian film about a girl who finds out the perfect guy she is dating keeps a person dressed as a dog in his home. That was one twisted time at the movies. But surely there’s room in the wide world of horror for more than one film about people dressed like animals. And while there are similarities with GOOD BOY 2022 and KENNELED, the two films would make for one hell of a bent double feature.

The oddity of seeing a person acting like an animal evokes a primal uneasy feel and that persists throughout KENNELED. Through Walker’s eyes, we are introduced to this strange world slowly and then, suddenly, like Walker as well, you feel trapped in this world of submission, control, and inhumanity. Doug seems like a perfectly playful pup, but he is an unwell man, and the situation Walker stumbles into quickly overwhelms him. In a way, along with Walker, the viewer is groomed to trust the situation Walker is in and get close until it’s too late for everyone.

I don’t want to give away any more of the plot but KENNELED delves into some very perverse places by the end. Actor Jack Ryan Beckner as Walker plays a likable lead. He’s naive and dense at times but well-meaning and the financial problems he finds himself in are relatable in these trying times. That’s a crucial element to this film because if he doesn’t do his job to pull you in, this story is just too bonkers to buy on its own. But because Walker approaches this situation with an open mind (and in this day and age where people can identify as anything, why wouldn’t he at least try to be empathetic to Doug’s preference to be a dog), you follow him hoping for the best. Hell, who wouldn’t love to live the leisurely, simple life of a dog in a mansion, away from the world’s problems?

But yeah, prepare for the other shoe to drop hard in the latter half of KENNELED. It’s a twisted bit of cinema. There’s not a ton of gore, but the psychological icky you’re going to feel from this one are immeasurable. Recommended for those sick puppies out there. You know who you are.