If anyone knows their way around a horror pastiche of ’90s television, it’s Casper Kelly. The director of Too Many Cooks and Mandy’s Cheddar Goblin advert makes good on the promise of a full-length analog nightmare with Buddy. You know, it’s Buddy! The orange unicorn from the kids’ TV show of the same name.
Those kids are starting to catch on that something’s not quite right, though, and when Wade (Caleb Williams) starts asking too many questions, Buddy’s chums learn that their colourful unicorn pal isn’t quite so cuddly after all. Following a tense showdown at Buddy’s clubhouse, determined Freddy (Delaney Quinn) leads the charge, making a break for freedom. Freedom, not just from Buddy’s ever-watchful eye, but also the constraints of the technicolour TV nightmare in which they’re all trapped.
Meanwhile, out in the real world, mum-of-two (?) Grace (Cristin Milioti) has a few questions of her own. She’s convinced that something is missing from her life, although dismissive husband Ben (Topher Grace) is having none of it. Catching an episode of Buddy, Grace becomes convinced that the answers she seeks are hidden within.
It’s an ambitious concept, and Kelly plays it straight at first, marathoning a handful of episodes of Buddy while Wade and Freddy launch their rebellion against Buddy. It’s as keenly observed as Too Many Cooks, and instantly recognisable as something which could have played on a TV set near you in the 90s. Keegan-Michael Key is almost unrecognisable as the voice of Buddy – and the choice to utilise a voice actor of his esteem proves a wise one. Elsewhere, Patton Oswalt provides the voice of a backpack, while Michael Shannon makes a great double act with Clint Howard in one of the film’s most memorable scenes. All are perfectly pitched, and fit seamlessly into the world of a children’s TV show gone wrong.
In tapping into the inherent creepiness of kids’ television, Kelly finds fertile ground for fresh nightmares. It finds its scares in the subconscious of those of us who were dumped in front of a television at a young age and both hypnotised and appalled by what we found there. We all know a kid who was unreasonably terrified by the sight of the Teletubbies, or The Tweenies. And Buddy knows it too. It’s Barney the Dinosaur meets Pennywise the Dancing Clown, with a bit of Freddy Kreuger thrown in for good measure.
While one wishes it hadn’t jettisoned the episodic format so soon, Buddy is successful in finding a balance between unsettling surrealism and traditional horror scares. It’s not afraid to go dark either, featuring some truly chilling sequences of kinder-trauma between rounds of song and dance.
A new horror icon is born in Buddy, a comedy-horror film that’s more than just empty nostalgia, or an unlikely killer parading around in a colourful suit. Now, how about that hug?
BUDDY premiered at Tubi FrightFest on August 28, 2026
