Review: 'Buddy' cleverly reimagines an '80s children's show format into something weirder and more terrifying
The premise for the horror thriller “Buddy” is creepily effective because it tries to answer a question any sleep-deprived parent has asked: What if the fuzzy costumed character on your child’s favorite show was, in fact, horribly evil and killing the children on the show?
Here, the show is “It’s Buddy,” an early-‘90s relic in which a plush orange unicorn comes alive as a 6-foot living character who plays with a quartet of children who play, sing and learn lessons about being cooperative or brave. The episodes always end with the kids giving Buddy a big hug and singing about about much they love him.
For the first 25 minutes, that’s the pattern that director Casper Kelly and his co-writer, Jamie King, set up. They also show the cracks in the perfect children’s TV facade when Buddy gets angry or someone — either child performs or grownup actor, like Nurse Nancy (Phuong Kubacki) — doesn’t do what Buddy tells them to do. Then Buddy starts murdering people, and has to go find new cast members. How he does that is a mystery Kelly and King aren’t eager to give away too soon.
The movie cuts away from Buddy’s candy-colored set to a typical suburban home, where Grace (Christin Milioti) lives with her husband, Ben (Topher Grace), and their two sons. On the surface, everything seems fine, but Grace starts feeling uneasy — like there’s something missing in their well-ordered suburban life.
While Grace is sorting that out, the kids in Buddy’s backyard start having their doubts about Buddy’s motivation for keeping the kids here, and for insisting that all the kids remain happy at all costs. One child, Freddy (Delaney Quinn, from “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”), realizes that the kids have to get out of Buddy’s yard, so they devise a plan to escape to far-off Crystal City.
How does Freddy’s story within the “It’s Buddy” hellscape and Grace’s suburban drama come together? That would be a major spoiler. Trust that it all makes sense within the stylized universe created here.
Kelly excels at bending a familiar family-friendly video style into something ghastly. He did it on his best known work, the 2014 video “Too Many Cooks,” a dark spoof of ‘80s sitcom credit sequences. Here, he evokes the cardboard and rainbows of the “Barney” genre, then twists it into something monstrous.
Kelly has help here, particularly in the realization of Buddy, with Sergey Zhuravsky working the character’s body and Keegan-Michael Key providing his voice. The movie also boasts solid voice work from Patton Oswalt and Michael Shannon, and a surprising performance from the king of “B”-movies, Clint Howard.
With a premise like this, the difficulty is in sticking the landing, and “Buddy” delivers with a tense, bloody conclusion that will make you think twice about what you let your little kids watch.
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‘Buddy’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, August 28, in several theaters. Rated R for bloody violence, some drug content and language - all involving children. Running time: 95 minutes.