Buddy (2026) Movie Review - How a Barney-Inspired Horror Comedy Becomes One of the Year's Big Surprises

It's Buddy!

Buddy is a 2026 supernatural black comedy horror film directed by Casper Kelly, written by Casper Kelly and Jamie King, produced by Low Spark Films and BoulderLight Pictures, and distributed by Roadside Attractions and Saban Films. It stars Delaney Quinn and Cristin Milioti.

"You love Buddy, yes you do..." - Buddy

Plot

On the children's TV show It's Buddy, the titular anthropomorphic orange unicorn starts to reveal his sinister side to the kids that make up his supporting cast.

The Sweet

Buddy is one of the year's biggest surprises for me personally.

I went into this movie knowing virtually nothing. I had watched maybe one trailer, but I didn't remember it all too well. I knew the general premise of it being a horror version of Barney, but besides that, I was basically going in blind.

The thing that I found so great about this movie was it's commitment to the premise. Buddy is exactly what it sounds like: if Barney was a horror movie. When I heard that, I thought it'd be like an evil show that lures kids in and causes them to go missing. I thought that Buddy would be sort of an ominous presence for most of the movie in the vein of something like Longlegs or Weapons. But it's not that at all. Most of the runtime of the film is set inside the show. You spend the whole first act of the movie basically watching episodes of this fictional TV show as it grows more and more sinister, and that was not at all what I expected. I was initially confused as to why the TV show segments were going on for so long, but as they kept going, I got more and more invested in these characters and this mystery of what exactly was going on. It honestly had a little bit of a WandaVision flair to it where you are trapped in this alternate TV reality alongside the characters and you aren't sure what's happening.

I also think that because we spend so much time at the beginning in the It's Buddy show, the real-world segments hit a lot harder. Cristin Milioti's character is really tragic and horrifying once you understand everything going on with her. There's a bunch of stuff set up during the TV show segments that come into play during the time we spend in the real world, so you as the audience member slowly start to piece this unsettling mystery together. The quiet, dawning realization of what's going on is so satisfying and makes the movie ripe for some rewatches.

The movie also has this imaginative creativity that is lacking in so many films nowadays. It gets weird in some totally unexpected ways, but I was all here for it. Director Casper Kelly of Too Many Cooks is no stranger to making this kooky, bizarre realities, but here, he really leans into the idea of this being a dark reality with the mask of a children's TV show. Two of our main characters here are an anthropomorphic backpack and an anthropomorphic mailbox...and they are two of the best characters in the movie. The set design, the music, the way everyone talks is just so true to what you see in Barney & Friends or Pee-Wee's Playhouse. The whole set being alive with these low-budget looking characters is classic children's TV, and when you blend that into horror, you get this mix that you never knew you needed.

With the bizarre nature of the film and the ridiculous premise, Buddy turns out to be a really, really funny movie. A lot of the laughs are uncomfortable because of how horrifying and weird these situations are, but they get laughs nonetheless. This is the textbook definition of a dark comedy. A lot of that comes from Buddy himself, because although he can be terrifying, the idea of a gigantic, fluffy orange unicorn killing people because they don't live him enough is so insane that it becomes funny. There are some weird romantic pairings in here and some scenes with some bonkers visuals that are just so out of place with what you normally see in movies that you are going to laugh.

I also want to give a huge shoutout to Delaney Quinn, who plays our lead character, Freddy, here. Quinn is able to start off as one of these typical ultra-happy kids on It's Buddy, but as her character begins to realize that things are seriously wrong, you see her start to change. She is able to go toe-to-toe with Cristin frickin' Milioti in terms of raw emotion and strength in the film's final act. I am so impressed with this girl, and I hope to see her in more movies in the future.

The movie is also fully committed to staying 100% practical. Now, with a film this low budget, it's hard to use CGI or anything of that sort, but I was still impressed with all the set design and props and ways in which this world was brought to life. The design of Buddy is awesome, especially as he gets more evil and more demonic. His final form in the third act was completely practical, and it looked absolutely incredible. There's a feeling of authenticity in the way that this movie was produced despite basically the entire film taking place in this alternate reality TV show.

I also think Buddy paves the way for a much larger franchise that could use some exploration. By the end of the movie, there are tons of easter eggs and little images behind the scenes that point to a larger mystery behind whatever is going on in this world. Very little of Buddy's backstory or the It's Buddy TV show is actually explained, and I'm pretty sure that was an intentional choice to leave the door open for sequels. It's the kind of world that you absolutely want to go back to just because of how bizarre and unique it really was. There's so many more crazy things to explore, and with the movie's box office, I'd expect that we will get another installment.

The Sour

Buddy is far from a perfect movie, but most of my negatives don't take away from the experience as a whole.

This will actually be a positive for some, but this movie shies away from really showing us most of the gore. There's a few kills that get pretty graphic, but a lot of them are off-screen or not very interesting. I do think that's a missed opportunity, because I feel like we could've gotten a lot of fun, creative kills with this children's TV setting. Now, I'm not saying that I want to see Buddy brutally murder kids on screen. If he's killing a kid, I think you should keep that mostly off-screen, but there are other characters he kills where they shy away from blood and guts, and I, as someone who loves a good kill in my horror movies, would have liked to have seen that.

And, while I do think this movie's easter eggs and slight hint as a larger story is a good thing, I do think it ends on a pretty unsatisfying note. The third act is good and the final showdown between Freddy and Buddy is solid, but the actual final moments leaves a lot of unanswered questions to the point where it really needs a sequel to wrap up it's story. It feels like a really unnecessary cliffhanger, because a movie like this should just tell its own, self-contained story with a beginning, middle, and end. Our main character does not really get resolution and the final images really just leave a lot of lingering questions in the back of your mind.

This kind of piggybacks off of my point about the gore, but if you are looking for a hardcore horror movie, this not that. Buddy is not a scary movie, and that's kind of the point. It feels much more like a very dark comedy with horror elements. Buddy himself can be scary, but he's not the type of villain where you are going to walk away and be afraid that he's right behind you. Most of the movie takes place in this bright, unsettling world that feels much more like an eerie acid trip than an outright horror movie. I think I did go in expecting the movie to be a little bit scarier, so I maybe walked out a bit disappointed at the lack of actual scares it provided.

Finally, I do think some of the characters are pretty underdeveloped here. The only characters we really spend time with are Freddy and Grace (Cristin Milioti), so you don't really get to know the supporting cast and you don't really care that much if they get killed off. They really just feel like more bodies for Buddy to rack up, which is disappointing, because it'd be interesting to see how these other kids react to Buddy's sinister side. There was a conflict that could've been explored there, but because the movie is short and trying to already cram a lot in, the supporting characters get lost in the aether just a little bit.

Final Thoughts and Score

Buddy is a surprising, hilarious, and wildly creative good time that will have you floored with how bizarre and unsettling of an experience it is.

I am going Savory here. Age range is 14+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good) Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"Buddy"

Fun Factor: 9/10

Acting: 8/10

Story: 8/10

Characters: 7/10

Quality: 8/10

Directed by Casper Kelly

Rated R for strong bloody violence, frightening themes and images, language, thematic elements

Released on August 28, 2026

1 hour and 36 minutes

Delaney Quinn as Freddy

Cristin Milioti as Grace

Keegan-Michael Key as Buddy the Unicorn (voice)

Sergey Zhuravsky as Buddy the Unicorn (in-suit)

Tristan Broders as Oliver

Madison Skyy Polan as Hannah

Caleb Williams as Wade

Luke Speakman as Josh

Tory Jacqui Malone as Tyler

Topher Grace as Ben

Brooke Bloom as Deborah Burr

Clint Howard as George

Phuong Kubacki as Nurse Nancy

Bennie Taylor as Mailman Miles

Patton Oswalt as Strappy

Michael Shannon as Willie

Jimmica Collins as Betty Bunny (voice)

Cedwan Hooks as Betty Bunny (in-suit)

Devon Hawkes Ludlow as Charlie

Eric Bauza as Mr. Mailbox (voice)

Rachel Applebaum as Mr. Mailbox (puppeteer)