BUDDY (2026)

If Casper Kelly’s Buddy were simply a twisted parody of a certain type of children’s show, it still probably would have worked. Kelly, creator of the sublimely chaotic “Too Many Cooks” short, has a keen eye for taking benign imagery and tilting it just enough for us to notice something is off, just a little at a time, until before we know it we’ve descended into madness. The introduction of Buddy, an orange unicorn about the size of Barney the Dinosaur who similarly champions love, teamwork, and friendship, is so earnest that at first there are only the slightest signs that it’s even a parody.

A director of, let’s say, an Eli Roth competency could have made a lot of hay out of simply taking a genuine and good-natured children’s show and bloodying it up for our perverse enjoyment. And there’s a good bit of that in Kelly’s film. But he isn’t content to stop and let Buddy coast on its premise for the whole time.

Instead, he looks closely at what really might be disturbing about the Barney-type show at its core. The relentless toxic positivity. The mandatory fun. The fascistic foam rubber führer demanding love, teamwork, and friendship. What happens to the kids who aren’t feeling friendly? Buddy shows us, in graphic detail.

And then, just as we assume Kelly has reached the limit of the concept (admittedly, you’d think it more suitable to a short film), he gives us a second act that enriches the world of the story. We see how Buddy the unicorn becomes a catalyst for confronting abuse, gaslighting, grief, and especially the recent very real trend of YouTube algorithms targeting and terrorizing children.

But Kelly never lets his horror film turn into a moral lecture, and delivers an adrenaline rush of a third act that follows through on every promise of the concept and takes the world around Buddy to fascinating, terrifying, and delightfully surprising places. I’ve been pretty vague about the exact plot of the movie. I don’t even want to mention the cast: though there are some recognizable faces and voices, it might be best to discover them as you go. The child actors all give masterful performances and Kelly is remarkably deft at directing them through difficult emotional paths.

Those who are intrigued by the premise of Barney-gone-bad will be delighted at Buddy, but may be surprised that on top of the pitch-perfect emulation and devastation of the children’s show trope, there’s a much richer story to be told and a much more satisfying time to be had than it seems. Most movies like this are complacent and give you the minimum of what the trailer offers. This is different.

**** out of ****