So, I just got out of Buddy, the new horror-comedy from Casper Kelly, and… this movie is fucking weird.
And I mean that in the best way possible.
The movie stars Cristin Milioti, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, and a group of fantastic young actors, including Delaney Quinn, Caleb Williams, Tristan Borders, and Madison Sky Poland. The basic premise is that a group of kids are trapped inside a bizarre, ’90s-style children’s television show. Think Barney-type programming: singing, dancing, catchy songs, life lessons, talking furniture, talking clocks, a nurse, a mailman, and, of course, Buddy — an orange unicorn who really, really wants everyone to get along.
The problem is, when things don’t go Buddy’s way… people start dying.
What I appreciated most about Buddy is how much it tapped into my own nostalgia. I grew up in the ’90s watching shows like Barney, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Dressup, Shining Time Station, and Polka Dot Door. So watching this movie recreate that whole aesthetic — the sets, the puppets, the costumes, the songs, the overly enthusiastic life lessons — was incredibly familiar to me. There’s something hilarious about watching characters stop everything to sing a song about courage or bravery while, in the background, you know this world is completely messed up.
And the kids absolutely nail it.
The young performers feel like they were transported straight out of a ’90s children’s television show. The way they talk, sing, dance, and interact with one another is so spot-on that it becomes part of the movie’s charm. Huge credit to the casting director because these kids completely understood the assignment.
Then you have Cristin Milioti, who is, as always, a tour de force. Her character, Grace, is dealing with this strange emptiness in her real life that she can’t quite explain. At one point, she tells her husband, played by Topher Grace, that she feels like they’ve had another child — a third child — and somehow they’ve forgotten about her.
That storyline was actually one of my favorite parts of the movie.
Without getting into spoilers, Grace eventually becomes connected to this strange world, and that’s where the movie starts revealing what is really going on. I thought the direction it took was interesting, especially because I went into Buddy thinking I knew exactly where it was heading. The movie starts in a way where you’re like, “Oh, okay, I know what this is going to be,” and then it completely goes somewhere else.
And I liked that.
The horror itself isn’t necessarily scary, but there are plenty of laughs, and there are some pretty damn funny kills. A lot of the comedy comes from the sheer repetition of this children’s show and how these characters are constantly singing and dancing about the most mundane things.
And Buddy himself is probably the biggest example of that.
Keegan-Michael Key does a fantastic job voicing him. There’s something so funny about Buddy being this cheerful, Barney-esque children’s character one second and then turning into an absolute psychopath the next. It’s almost like he can flip a switch. One minute he’s teaching everyone about friendship, and the next he’s murdering somebody.
But here’s where Buddy ultimately lost me a little bit.
I just wanted more.
The movie is only about 96 minutes long, and I genuinely think five extra minutes of exposition could have made a huge difference.
Because by the end, I was sitting there thinking, Wait… how the hell is any of this actually happening?
This show apparently doesn’t exist in the real world. There are no records of it. Somehow, it’s pulling children out of the real world and bringing them into this alternate reality where they basically live inside the show forever. The episodes reset, the kids don’t really remember their lives outside of it, and they’re essentially stuck repeating the same routines until they either figure out what’s happening or Buddy kills them.
That’s a really interesting concept!
But the movie doesn’t give you quite enough information about why it exists or how it works.
And I’m not asking for an entire mythology or some giant exposition dump. I just wanted a little more meat on the bone. Especially when it comes to Grace’s storyline. There’s some really interesting stuff happening there, and I think a little more explanation surrounding her connection to this world would have gone a long way.
That’s ultimately how I feel about Buddy. I had a good time with it. I thought it was funny, incredibly creative, and visually it does a fantastic job recreating that specific ‘90s children’s television aesthetic. The performances are great, the young actors are terrific, Milioti is fantastic, and Keegan-Michael Key is clearly having a blast as Buddy.
But compared to some of the other low-budget indie horror movies I’ve seen this year, this is probably the weakest of the bunch for me. Obsession is Obsession, and Backrooms gave me a lot more to chew on even though it was also dealing with a strange concept.
With Buddy, I walked out of the theater thinking, Okay… but how?
Still, I appreciate what Casper Kelly was trying to do here. It’s such a bizarre concept, and the craftsmanship that went into recreating this warped version of ‘90s children’s television is genuinely impressive.
So, Buddy was an okay time at the movies for me.
Buddy = 62/100
