Buddy Review: A Gleefully Twisted Kids' Show Nightmare

This Buddy review starts with a warning: the cute unicorn on the poster is not your friend. Casper Kelly's R-rated horror comedy takes the saccharine language of children's television and bends it until it screams. It is loud, handmade and very strange, and it knows exactly what it is doing.

Buddy Review: The Story So Far (No Spoilers)

The Buddy plot begins inside "It's Buddy!", a fake kids' show where children sing, dance and help a bright orange unicorn spread happiness. Everything looks sunny and safe. Then one child refuses to join in, and Buddy takes it badly.

From there the film follows the cracks that spread through this candy-coloured world. Early scenes play like a deranged episode of a pre-school programme, before the story widens to include a real-world family and the growing sense that something is wrong. I will stay clear of the details, because the surprises are a big part of the fun.

If you like your horror movie reviews on the weird side, this premise is a strong hook. It borrows the feel of a cursed VHS tape and commits to it completely.

What Works in Buddy

The craft is the star. The puppetry, sets and practical effects have a tactile, handmade texture that CGI rarely matches. Buddy himself is a memorable creation, equal parts cuddly and menacing.

Kelly also understands tone. The film plays cheerful surfaces against creeping dread, and the body horror lands with real squelch. Several viewers have praised how fresh and original it feels as a horror film.

The songs deserve a mention too. They are obnoxiously catchy in exactly the right way, the sort of earworms a children's show would use, only here they curdle as the story turns darker.

• Practical effects: puppets and physical creations give the nightmare weight.

• Tonal contrast: sweet visuals hide something genuinely nasty.

• Commitment: the film never winks too hard or backs away from its premise.

Buddy Cast and Performances

The Buddy cast is led by Keegan-Michael Key, who voices Buddy and his darker counterpart, Dark Buddy. He gives the unicorn a sing-song brightness that can flip into something sinister, and the voice work is a big reason the character sticks.

Cristin Milioti plays Grace and sells the rising panic well. She grounds the story when the film's logic goes off the rails. Delaney Quinn (Freddy), Tristan Borders (Oliver), Madison Skyy Polan (Hannah) and Caleb Williams (Wade) round out the group of children and the wider cast.

The film asks its actors to react to puppets and heightened nonsense, and they commit. Nobody feels like they are above the material, which helps the horror and the jokes work.

Where Buddy Stumbles

The main problem is stamina. A premise that works brilliantly as a sketch can strain over a feature, and at 96 minutes Buddy keeps escalating without enough variety. The shock of the idea slowly turns into repetition.

The humour is also hit and miss. Some viewers found that only a couple of gags landed, even while admiring the film's creativity. The mid-film shift between the real-world investigation and Buddy's realm may feel like a detour, too, as if it belongs to a different movie.

And if you are hoping for a full-on mascot slasher, you may want more gore than the film delivers. It is more strange than savage.

Is Buddy Worth Watching?

Yes, if you enjoy offbeat horror comedy and practical effects. Buddy is original, ambitious and often very funny in its own twisted way, even if it overstays its welcome in the middle.

Audience reaction has been warm, with viewers splitting between rapturous praise and more measured admiration. That sounds right to me. It is a cult film in the making rather than a crowd-pleaser, and it earns a 7 out of 10. Fans of dark comedy movie reviews and fantasy movie reviews will find plenty to chew on.

If you want another recent genre curiosity, our Other Mommy review covers a different kind of creepy domestic scare. The film is set for release on 27 August 2026, and you can find more details on IMDb.

Who Will Enjoy Buddy

• Horror fans who love puppets, practical effects and body horror.

• Viewers who enjoy internet-style analog horror and fake kids' show nightmares.

• Anyone after something original, loud and unapologetically strange, as long as you can handle the R rating.