‘Buddy’ Delivers a Wickedly Twisted Take on ‘90s Kids TV Nostalgia

Horror filmmakers have long understood that childhood nostalgia carries a unique kind of unsettling power when twisted just slightly off-center. Few things feel more universally recognizable, and therefore more ripe for subversion, than the brightly colored, sugary-sweet world of morning children’s television.

That’s exactly the territory director Casper Kelly set out to explore with his latest horror-comedy, building an entire film around the kind of program most millennials grew up watching without a second thought. What started as a strange, viral concept has now made its way fully into theaters, giving audiences their first real taste of just how far the film is willing to push its central conceit.

A newly released clip from ‘Buddy,’ starring Buddy the Unicorn, gives fans another look at the film’s premise, which follows a girl and her friends who must escape a demented kids TV show. The film centers on ‘It’s Buddy!,’ a forgotten 1999 children’s television series hosted by an anthropomorphic, magic-wielding unicorn, alongside co-host Betty Bunny and a rotating cast of child performers.

Keegan-Michael Key voices Buddy, with Sergey Zhuravsky performing the character in-suit and Cristin Milioti starring as Grace, a mother whose child’s disappearance connects directly back to the long-forgotten show. As the story unfolds, Buddy’s cheerful, saccharine persona gradually gives way to something far more sinister once the show’s child cast members start disappearing under increasingly suspicious circumstances.

The film’s central hook draws heavily on the aesthetic of beloved ’90s children’s programming, complete with a peppy musical title sequence and the kind of cheap, sugary visual style familiar to anyone who grew up watching shows like ‘Blue’s Clues.’ That faithful recreation of the genre makes Buddy’s eventual turn toward violence land with considerably more impact once the film’s true tone reveals itself.

Kelly, best known for creating the viral Adult Swim short “Too Many Cooks,” has built a reputation around subverting nostalgic television formats in increasingly unsettling ways, and ‘Buddy’ appears to extend that same sensibility into full feature length. Critics reviewing the film out of its Sundance Film Festival premiere earlier this year frequently compared Buddy’s unsettling, forced affection to the kind of uncanny discomfort longtime audiences associate with other beloved children’s mascots.

‘Buddy’ currently holds an 83 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 30 reviews, reflecting a generally favorable critical response since its wider release. Slate’s Sam Adams praised the film’s ability to introduce genuine menace into Buddy’s world without needing to rewrite the established rules of that universe, noting that the darkness feels like it was always bubbling just beneath the surface.

Not every review has been quite as enthusiastic, with some critics arguing the film doesn’t fully capitalize on its most promising ideas. Still, the overall reception suggests Kelly successfully found a way to make a genuinely unsettling horror film out of material that, on its surface, sounds almost too silly to work.

‘Buddy’ premiered in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival back in January before receiving a wider theatrical release on August 28 through Roadside Attractions and Saban Films. The film’s blend of childhood nostalgia and genuine horror has clearly struck a chord with audiences and critics who grew up on similarly formatted programming, even if some found the execution uneven in places.

For anyone who spent their childhood glued to brightly colored educational programming, ‘Buddy’ offers a pointed reminder of just how easily that same nostalgic comfort can curdle into something far more disturbing when filtered through a horror lens.

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