Buddy takes a "killer Barney" premise to its delightfully unhinged conclusion

For the generation of Barney & Friends viewers, Buddy is like looking into a nostalgic funhouse mirror. By warping the cozy series into a killing field of cartoonish violence, Kelly delights in surprising his audience with dark twists and turns. Kelly, the creator behind other TV parodies like “Too Many Cooks” and the Adult Swim Yule Log, takes a meta-step beyond Buddy’s show, flipping the channels between Buddy’s home (which really looks like it was filmed in the ’90s), the so-called dangerous forest that the kids run into to escape, the real world with Grace and her family, and a Backrooms-like abandoned school where Buddy’s show seem to capture their next victims, teasing even more worlds beyond the ones we’re shown. 

Kelly and co-writer Jamie King lean into the campiness of the talking furniture and songs lessons with deranged glee, using them to terrify the kids on the show as they solve a murder committed by their best friend Buddy. The filmmakers pepper Buddy with references to shows from several generations, reflecting a persistent evergreen nostalgia for the TV we fall in love with as children and perverting it all for squeamish punchlines and more poignant notes about how eventually, we grow up and start to question the world around us. To name a few, the film has its own Thomas The Tank Engine with the character of Charlie The Train (Devon Hawkes Ludlow), Diamond City nods to The Wizard Of Oz‘s Emerald City, and the cowboy puppet Willie (Michael Shannon) hearkens back to the Howdy Doody programs of early television deepening the sense of TV history alongside Buddy’s lust for gore and control. If there’s a more unnerving sequence than Buddy goring a victim with his unicorn horn, it’s how he bullies and commands love from generations of children, like a despot desperate to regain control of the narrative at any costs. 

With its scrappy yet accurate TV set and silly props, Kelly’s theatrical feature debut is thoroughly committed to its bit. He’s found equally enthusiastic partners in Key (whose performance as the fuzzy and chipper mass murderer is chilling from start to finish), Milioti (who plays both a frazzled working mom and a nurse who endures Buddy’s inappropriate behavior), and the young cast led by Quinn as Freddy, who becomes the heart of the film when facing off against the towering creature supposed to be her friend. Maybe a few bits last too long, as anyone who’s gotten “Too Many Cooks” stuck in their heads can attest, but the world Kelly’s created for Buddy is imaginative enough to sustain its silly, splattery story. 

There’s so much to love about Buddy, from its blender full of references as disparate as H.R. Pufnstuf and An American Werewolf In London, to its deranged whimsical world. More than just a pastiche, it’s its own weirdo film built from TV parts, a horror movie about childhood that’s meant for adults who can look back at their own half-forgotten shows, laugh, and wonder why they liked these oddly endearing, sometimes alarming, programs. Kelly recreates the look of these shows right down to their transition wipes and hip hop-lite choreography, but his darkest scares come from how someone who’s not-so-nice gets away with bullying. Everyone pledges their love to Buddy, poking fun at the cult-like cadence of these shows, but it doesn’t spare them from the cute ‘n’ cuddly killer. 

Director: Casper Kelly
Writers: Casper Kelly, Jamie King
Starring: Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key
Release Date: August 28, 2026