When flipping through Adult Swim at 1:30 in the morning, you might find yourself greeted by the works of Casper Kelly. A longtime writer for various animated shows for the channel, he eventually began working on surrealist live action horror comedic material, eventually culminating in the short works “Too Many Cooks” and the two “Adult Swim Yule Log” specials. These works are perfect, bite-sized showcases of his skill in turning the mundane into the bizarrely horrific, without losing any humor in the process. Now, after directing a segment of 2025’s “V/H/S/ Halloween” film, he has his first feature length film with the tale of an orange unicorn named “Buddy.”
It’s Buddy! Everyone’s favorite orange unicorn here to teach you life lessons on how to share, be brave, and get along with all your friends. But something is wrong with Buddy, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key (“Key and Peele,” “Schmigadoon!”). Freddy, played by Delaney Quinn (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” “The Beanie Bubble”), has noticed that some of her friends around the clubhouse have been disappearing, and that Buddy seems to be more and more frustrated. Can she and her backpack Strappy, voiced by Patton Oswalt (“Ratatouille,” “The King of Queens”), stay safe among Buddy’s increasingly concerning behavior? Meanwhile, what does suburban mom Grace, played by Cristin Milioti (“Palm Springs,” “The Penguin”), have to do with all of this?
If you’re a seasoned horror fan, what Kelly and co-writer Jamie King (“Jessica Jones,” “World’s Best”) have written here won’t blow you away in terms of the plot’s originality. It shares a lot of DNA with other mascot-based horror projects from the past decade, as well as the likes of “The Wizard of Oz” and “IT.” That’s not a problem though, as it provides a solid foundation to build up from, and build they do. The production design is without a doubt the film’s best element. As opposed to other shows or movies that throw a VHS filter over modern footage and call it a day, the many retro sequences of “Buddy” looks like they might actually have been shot in the 1990s. The other big problem they avoid is the over-design of the characters. It’s hard to look at Freddy Fazbear and think any adult actually thought a kid would find him safe. The costumes are perfect here; if you sliced out the film’s most normal moments, you could easily convince anyone that this was a real unthreatening show from the 1990s.
Key has perfect delivery as he, much like the costumes, avoids becoming too overtly sinister or winking to the audience with his performance. It feels like a legitimate, authentic delivery someone from this era might have given. Quinn absolutely steals the show, with one of the best child actor performances in a long time. Her fear and genuine heart power the film; she is its secret weapon. All of the child actors are fantastic, like Tristan Broders as Oliver and Madison Skyy Polan as Hannah. They go through a veritable odyssey together, and it shows by the end. Milioti, like Quinn, is one of the film’s best elements. While she gets less time to shine compared to the younger cast, she’s nevertheless deeply compelling and serves as the big beating bloody heart at the center.
The authenticity coming from the production design and the cast end up fueling the film’s sense of unease. By withholding any sense of deliberate horror or off-kilter nature directly, it lets the uncertainty bubble to the surface. There’s no “in your face” moments of Buddy doing drugs or using guns or anything otherwise; it commits to the aesthetic entirely until things go completely wrong. This means that the themes they play with, child actors, toxic positivity, predatory children’s environments, get time to fester instead of bluntly beating the audience over the head. Yet, these elements clearly are not the point; Kelly and King want to make a dark horror comedy, and they succeed in that. The film is quite dry and uneasily funny, mining plenty of humor from the absurdity of the world and the way the scenario is presented. They also avoid giving any direct explanations to a majority of the events, instead letting the confusion and questions bubble up to further add to the film’s unease and mystique.
If “Buddy” is playing with some plot points and children’s mascot horror tropes that are well-worn by now, Casper Kelly has certainly spruced things up to feel considerably less so. The entire film’s production design and commitment to its atmosphere lifts it above typical costumes horror fare, and the cast deliver the heart needed to make this little adventure something special. This is a tried-and-true midnight movie filled with mystery and unanswered questions and tons of black humor that will delight most and turn off the rest. It’s as much fun as one could expect to have with a guy as cuddly as Buddy! 4/5
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