Buddy

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Buddy

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1h 35m

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Popcornmeter

88%

Tomatometer

119 Reviews

76%

Popcornmeter

500+ Verified Ratings

Remember BUDDY--the bright orange unicorn and star of that classic children's television show who brought joy and life lessons into your living room? Inside the colorful world of "It's Buddy!", a group of children spend their days singing, dancing, and helping Buddy spread happiness. But when one child refuses to play along, Buddy is not pleased and cracks begin to appear in this seemingly perfect world.

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Critics Consensus

Buddy weaponizes the cheery conventions of children's entertainment into an inventive, hilarious, and creepy descent into pop culture madness.

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Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

3d

Enjoyably weird to the end, its horror soul in line with the creepypasta ethos of something undefined yet eternal.

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Perri Nemiroff

Perri Nemiroff (YouTube)

3d

4/5

I really love everything about how this movie was made and how practical and handmade the entire thing feels. I think it aligns with the whole concept, this being a Barney-like show.

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Tomris Laffly

RogerEbert.com

6d

3.5/4

It’s a trippy, ballsy, and genuinely entertaining package that shouldn’t work at all. But it does, and I can’t believe it exists.

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Abbie Bernstein

Assignment X

2h

B

Director Casper Kelly & his cowriter Jamie King have brilliantly absorbed the molecular structure of the type of children’s programming they’re adapting.

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

4h

A creative gamble some viewers are bound to love.

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Michael Nordine

Movie Brief

5h

If you grew up convinced that Barney and the Teletubbies were evil, Casper Kelley’s feature theatrical debut may be the demented horror-comedy of your dreams

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Joseph

34m

Wish it could have been more scarier. But still loved it.. That movie was good… and freakin crazy. 👀 That Barney looking character was every type of evil. That Fool was went nuts It was like watching pee Herman’s playhouse, Barney, and Jason from Friday the 13th, going back to back from the TV show to the Real World like Poltergeist. Bipolar, Perverted, Evil Barney type. Gore horror , bloody, all of it. I loved it, was refreshing for a horror movie.

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Ryan

1h

Wasn’t very scary or gorey but the comedy was funny and the props and costumes were very well designed, the movie felt very original and good this is like the first time I’ve seen the banana splits / fnaf movie genre done right

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Drew B

7h

awesome movie, everything i would have wanted it to be!

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Jason B

7h

Strange and twisted. If you have a problem with bad things happening to children, then avoid this movie. This is sort of a hybrid horror/black comedy film that asks the question: what if Barney was real (i.e. he wasn’t just some guy in a costume) and what if he was a predator who kidnapped children (and some adults) and erased them from existence to cover his tracks. The whole story goes through about 4 or 5 separate acts and never really answers the big questions: what is buddy, and where did he come from? It does, however, hint at possible sequels.

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Roy J

7h

I was not expecting this to be so funny. It has more comedy than horror, and totally worth the time and money. Love a creative original flick

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Syris

14h

So amazing and unique! One of the best horror movies I’ve seen!

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Synopsis

Remember BUDDY--the bright orange unicorn and star of that classic children's television show who brought joy and life lessons into your living room? Inside the colorful world of "It's Buddy!", a group of children spend their days singing, dancing, and helping Buddy spread happiness. But when one child refuses to play along, Buddy is not pleased and cracks begin to appear in this seemingly perfect world.

Director: Chris 'Casper' Kelly
Producer: Tyler Davidson, Drew Sykes, Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz, Tracy Rosenblum
Screenwriter: Chris 'Casper' Kelly, Jamie King
Distributor: Roadside Attractions / Saban Films
Production Co: BoulderLight Pictures, Low Spark Films, Sipur Studios, Substance
Rating: R (Bloody Violence|Some Drug Content|Language)
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 28, 2026, Wide
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.5M
Runtime: 1h 35m
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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