Horror · Review ·
Buddy
Buddy turns a Barney-style kids' show into a gory, inventive horror comedy, and critics are genuinely split on it. The production design, puppetry and Keegan-Michael Key's voice work are the draw; the stretched-out gag and the thin satire are the cost.
Casper Kelly's first feature is a midnight movie that mostly earns its strangeness. Three and a half out of five.
Dir. Casper Kelly · 2026 · about 95 min · in cinemas since 28 August, on digital since 13 October (US)
The setup
Casper Kelly is the man behind the 2014 short Too Many Cooks, a pastiche of sitcom title sequences that curdled into a slasher. Buddy is his first feature, and it takes the same trick to a bigger stage: a bright, relentlessly cheerful children's television show, built around an orange unicorn called Buddy, with a catchy song, a towering host and a room of kids who do exactly what they're told. Keegan-Michael Key voices the unicorn; Michael Shannon and Patton Oswalt are among the other voices.
The conceit, as critics describe the first act, is that Buddy does not take refusal well. When a child won't join in, the child is gone, off screen, and the rest of the class gets the message. Freddy (Delaney Quinn) and two friends decide to run. Elsewhere, in the real world, a mother named Grace (Cristin Milioti) senses there is a child her household has forgotten. Two stories, one unicorn. That is as far as this review goes.
What works
Almost every review praises the same thing first: the look. The film rebuilds a 1990s kids' show with its transition wipes, primary colours and choreography, and the puppetry and creature work are singled out for punching above a budget reported at about $3 million. Keegan-Michael Key's voice work as the chirpy, murderous Buddy and the young cast get steady credit, and several critics say the film is stronger as a horror film about childhood than as a plain parody, because it plugs the show's fake emotions into real fears of abandonment and loneliness.
It's a trippy, ballsy, and genuinely entertaining package that shouldn't work at all. But it does.
Tomris Laffly, RogerEbert.com
What doesn't
The critics who cooled on it make a consistent complaint: a short film's joke stretched over feature length. Chase Hutchinson at TheWrap finds it repetitive and baggy where the short was punchy, and the Hollywood Reporter, as summarised in a Sundance roundup, wanted it to be more extreme or disturbing than it is. Even admirers note that some bits run long, that the high concept wears thin before the finale, and that supporting characters get left behind. The gore and the violence involving children earn the R rating and will put some viewers off.
Where critics split
This is a divisive film, and the split is worth knowing before you press play. A.V. Club and Bloody Disgusting lean positive (a B+ and 3.5 out of 5 skulls respectively), IndieWire, Variety and Deadline were warm out of Sundance, while TheWrap called it a misfire. The aggregate sits between: Rotten Tomatoes reports 88% positive, Metacritic a more measured 67 out of 100. Our score lands in the same place, a film with real invention and a visible seam.
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Where to watch
In the US, Buddy opened in cinemas on 28 August via Roadside Attractions and Saban Films and has been available on digital since 13 October, with Blu-ray and DVD announced for 8 December and a VHS edition on pre-order. Availability varies by country, so check your local cinema and rental listings.