Keegan-Michael Key is the newest horror icon a fuzzy unicorn on a kids’ show in Buddy.
It’s Buddy! Oh, Buddy! He’s cuddly, snuggly, our best friend!
Barney, watch out. Buddy is here. Actually, everyone, watch out… Buddy is here. The newest wild, mind-bending horror film from writer/director Casper Kelly, featuring an iconic new horror icon voiced by Keegan-Michael Key.
A group of children appears to be stuck in a Saturday morning children’s show from the 1990s. Behind the fluffy, cheery veneer lies something sinister. At the center of that darkly evil nature is the star of the It’s Buddy show, Buddy, a seven-foot-tall fluffy unicorn. Freddy (Delaney Quinn) refuses to believe anything Buddy says any longer and begins an attempt to escape this world they seem to be trapped in. How Freddy and the other children connect to a career mom (Christin Milioti) is what could possibly save them from the evil, murderous unicorn.
There have been so many jokes made about The Teletubbies and Barney being horror in and of itself; it was only a matter of time before there would be a film inspired by the concept. Kelly’s film is as adroit as one can get with its execution. Finding a way to be weird, funny, and scary sometimes all at the same time. There are real stakes and outright scary set pieces where characters are in peril but have enough time to have a scene where a now grown-up child (Clint Howard) and a Howdy Doody-style puppet (Michael Shannon), after being on the run from Buddy for decades, steal candy from the children.
Like the best horror films, Buddy lays the rules out very early, adroitly, by showing us (rather than some sort of banal exposition dump) through a succession of looped “episodes” of the It’s Buddy show. This is where the film shines visually. The ace cinematography by Zach Kuperstein almost perfectly mimics the 1.33 shot-cheaply-on-video aesthetic of a bygone era. Production designer Ana Kathleen, art director Vince Calabrese, costume designer Shawana-nova Foley, and puppet designer Devon Hawkes Ludlow all do marvelous work in aiding the visual style that transitions from the cheap video aesthetics to a hyper-realized world these children must traverse.
Co-Stars Milioti and Quinn do most of the heavy lifting with the believability of the world. They are not just the heart of the film but manage to bring a humanity that makes their respective plights feel real. It’s Keegan-Michael Key who may be the MVP of the film. Key gives Buddy the elevation to a possible true-blue classic and the rise of a new horror icon. His voice work here makes the character and the film a true menace and threat, and not just some one-note, sketch-style joke. Even beyond the moments where the unicorn is murdering, there is this contained rage that edges throughout conversations that Key gives the character that makes for tense moments throughout. Watch as Buddy interrogates a flower to see how effective that menace and dread is.
Buddy is the kind of wonderfully strange horror film that should not to be missed.
Keegan-Michael Key is the newest horror icon a fuzzy unicorn on a kids’ show in Buddy.
It’s Buddy! Oh, Buddy! He’s cuddly, snuggly, our best friend!
Barney, watch out. Buddy is here. Actually, everyone, watch out… Buddy is here. The newest wild, mind-bending horror film from writer/director Casper Kelly, featuring an iconic new horror icon voiced by Keegan-Michael Key.
A group of children appears to be stuck in a Saturday morning children’s show from the 1990s. Behind the fluffy, cheery veneer lies something sinister. At the center of that darkly evil nature is the star of the It’s Buddy show, Buddy, a seven-foot-tall fluffy unicorn. Freddy (Delaney Quinn) refuses to believe anything Buddy says any longer and begins an attempt to escape this world they seem to be trapped in. How Freddy and the other children connect to a career mom (Christin Milioti) is what could possibly save them from the evil, murderous unicorn.
There have been so many jokes made about The Teletubbies and Barney being horror in and of itself; it was only a matter of time before there would be a film inspired by the concept. Kelly’s film is as adroit as one can get with its execution. Finding a way to be weird, funny, and scary sometimes all at the same time. There are real stakes and outright scary set pieces where characters are in peril but have enough time to have a scene where a now grown-up child (Clint Howard) and a Howdy Doody-style puppet (Michael Shannon), after being on the run from Buddy for decades, steal candy from the children.
Like the best horror films, Buddy lays the rules out very early, adroitly, by showing us (rather than some sort of banal exposition dump) through a succession of looped “episodes” of the It’s Buddy show. This is where the film shines visually. The ace cinematography by Zach Kuperstein almost perfectly mimics the 1.33 shot-cheaply-on-video aesthetic of a bygone era. Production designer Ana Kathleen, art director Vince Calabrese, costume designer Shawana-nova Foley, and puppet designer Devon Hawkes Ludlow all do marvelous work in aiding the visual style that transitions from the cheap video aesthetics to a hyper-realized world these children must traverse.
Co-Stars Milioti and Quinn do most of the heavy lifting with the believability of the world. They are not just the heart of the film but manage to bring a humanity that makes their respective plights feel real. It’s Keegan-Michael Key who may be the MVP of the film. Key gives Buddy the elevation to a possible true-blue classic and the rise of a new horror icon. His voice work here makes the character and the film a true menace and threat, and not just some one-note, sketch-style joke. Even beyond the moments where the unicorn is murdering, there is this contained rage that edges throughout conversations that Key gives the character that makes for tense moments throughout. Watch as Buddy interrogates a flower to see how effective that menace and dread is.
Buddy is the kind of wonderfully strange horror film that should not to be missed.
Buddy is in theaters on August 28th.
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