Buddy (2026)    Roadside Attractions/Horror-Comedy    RT: 95 minutes    Rated R (bloody violence, some drug content and language- all involving children)    Director: Casper Kelly    Screenplay: Casper Kelly and Jamie King    Music: Michael Yezerski    Cinematography: Zach Kuperstein    Release date: August 28, 2026 (US)    Cast: Keegan-Michael Key, Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon, Clint Howard, Topher Grace, Caleb “C.J.” Williams, Tristan Broders, Madison Skyy Polan, Luke Speakman, Bennie Taylor, Phuong Kubacki, Eric Bauza, Cedwan Hooks, Devon Hawkes Ludlow, Seamus Flynn, Bryson JonSteele, Mark Aaron Buerkle, Brooke Bloom.

Rating: *** ½

 I was well past the target age when Barney arrived on the scene in the early 90s. The anthropomorphic purple dinosaur, who taught valuable life lessons through song and dance, quickly became every child’s obsession and every parent’s nightmare. I can still hear my little cousins (ages 3 and 2 at the time) singing that annoying theme song on repeat. I largely avoided family gatherings until they grew out of it, not that what came next (The Spice Girls) was any better.

 I figured it was only a matter of time before some filmmaker decided to give Barney (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) the horror treatment. Sure enough, here’s Buddy! He’s essentially Barney in a different form, a bright-orange unicorn to be exact. He serves the same basic purpose. He’s a stuffed toy brought to life by his “friends” to help them navigate tricky situations. Each episode ends with a lesson learned and the kids hugging their host while singing the theme song. The similarities end there.

 So what’s different about Buddy? Let me put it this way. Whatever you do, for God’s sake, don’t get on his bad side. It could be fatal. That’s right, Buddy is a killer. He doesn’t take kindly to having his feelings hurt when one of the kids steps out of line somehow. Early on, he deals with a boy who’d rather read a book than go to a dance party. Needless to say, there’s an abrupt cast change.

 Directed by Casper Kelly (the “Fun Size” segment of V/H/S/Halloween), Buddy is the most twisted movie of the year. I love how Kelly structures his horror-comedy. Set in 1999, it opens with a couple of episodes of the show (i.e. It’s Buddy!). It’s set in a world of talking objects (e.g. mailboxes, backpacks, trains) and happy, smiling kids. Alas, not all is right with this world. There’s something sinister about it. It’s almost as if they’re trapped there.

 Freddy (Quinn), a little girl with pigtails and freckles, is the first to realize something’s very wrong here.  She sees something she shouldn’t have. Buddy explains it away with a lie. Freddy isn’t convinced. She tries to warn the other children. They don’t want to believe her. When they finally do, they start looking for a way to escape from the show.

 In the real world, nobody seems to have heard of Buddy, nobody except Grace (Milioti, The Penguin), a wife and mother who seems to be going through something. She isn’t sure what though. During a consult with a psychic at her home, It’s Buddy pops up on TV. She can’t find anything about him online. It’s almost as if he never existed. Her husband (Grace, Heretic) dismisses her concerns and tells her to get a grip. She can’t. She keeps looking until….

 This is where I stop describing the plot of Buddy and start telling you why I love it. But first, I’d like to address something I saw a few people mention on social media. It’s going to be tricky though. It’s about the ending. I’m going to have to talk my way around it so I don’t spoil it. Okay, here goes nothing. The movie’s detractors said they didn’t get it, that it left them with more questions than answers. They claim Buddy doesn’t explain itself. That’s not entirely true. It’s not entirely untrue either. It doesn’t come right out and explain what’s going on. BUT if you think about it, you can probably come up with an explanation. Kelly drops enough clues. Also, I believe he’s setting the stage for a sequel in which all will be explained. That’s all I have to say on the subject.

 I love Buddy for many reasons. For one, it’s original. I can safely say I’ve never seen anything like it. It also tells the story in a clever way. Kelly makes excellent use of 90s aesthetics in creating a world that’s simultaneously a wholesome fantasy land for children and a nightmare landscape with monsters. At one point, the kids encounter an old cowboy (Howard, the OG Ice Cream Man) with a creepy ventriloquist’s dummy (voiced by Michael Shannon) who encourage them to consume hallucinogenic flower petals.

 This leads me to my next point. Buddy isn’t afraid to get trippy. It’s like Barney on acid although it could be argued that many children’s shows from back in the day look like they were made by people on drugs. How else would you explain The New Zoo Revue or The Great Space Coaster or anything by Sid and Marty Krofft? Everything in Buddy feels slightly off. I can dig it!

 I heard somebody compare Buddy to Terrifier. I’m not so sure I agree with that 100%. It has a few gory scenes (one involving a child), but it’s not nearly as gory as any of the Terrifier films. They are in a class of their own in that respect. In any event, the gore effects here are well done. They’re sufficiently gross and bloody.

 The cast looks and sounds like they’re having a blast with Buddy. Keegan-Michael Key (of Key & Peele) voices Buddy and does a marvelous job of it. He puts just the right amount of sugar-coated malevolence into the things he says to the kids. There’s something evil right beneath the surface. Milioti also does great as a woman who comes to play a big role in the story. As for the junior members of the cast, they look just like the kids you’d see on a show like this. They make you believe their fear is real.

 I don’t know how successful Buddy will be at the box office. It’s more likely to achieve cult film status. I just hope it’s enough for Roadside Attractions to greenlight a sequel. I’ll be there opening day if it ever materializes.