MOVIE REVIEW: BUDDY

 

Dressed as a unicorn, a beloved children's TV host reveals his true self as a dark and violent force of nature.

Director: Casper Kelly

Cast: Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key

Release Date: August 28, 2026

 

Genre: Horror 

Rated R for bloody violence, some drug content and language – all involving children.

Runtime: 1h 35m

Review:

Buddy is a hilarious campy horror oddity that delivers as much gory fun as it does scares in a nightmarish multicolored kid’s show.  Casper Kelly carefully creates Buddy’s world with such attention to detail that the show itself could probably pass for the real deal.  There plenty of inspiration pulled from Barney along with bits and pieces of other children’s shows over the years.  It’s disarmingly familiar from the moment the film opens but there’s always a sense that there is something off kilter about the whole thing.  Kelly doesn’t take long to unfurl the insanity of the world these kids are trapped in with Keegan-Michael Key’s psychotic Buddy.  Keegan-Michael Key’s voices the character with impressive glee as he switches seamlessly between saccharine sweet and menacing.  He carries the lion’s share of the load as the lynch pin of the whole thing aided by some solid supporting turns from people like Patton Oswalt and Michael Shannon as other anthropomorphic characters.  Oswalt is lots of fun as Strappy, a talking backpack, who faces a full-on existential crisis as his world reveals itself to be incredibly murderous and fraught.  The child actors are just as strong, led by Delaney Quinn, who plays Cristin Milioti’s missing daughter.  Quinn plays up the children’s show actor initially before she finds out the level of danger, she finds herself in.  Milioti’s Grace does the most she can with her limited screentime, especially early on as she tries to remember a missing child nobody else seems to remember.  Once she’s sucked into Buddy’s realm she easily transitions into the adult players on show before coming to her senses and doing everything possible to save her daughter.  The story gets progressively darker as it goes along and there are a handful of juicy details tossed about that makes everything feel like some sort of twisted Monsters Inc which makes Buddy something distinctive in the horror genre.  

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: V/H/S HALLOWEEN

 

A collection of Halloween-themed videotapes unleashes a series of twisted, blood-soaked tales, turning trick-or-treat into a struggle for survival.

Director:  Anna Zlokovic, Paco Plaza, Casper Kelly, Alex Ross Perry, Bryan M. Ferguson, R.H. Norman

Cast: Samantha Cochran, Natalia Montgomery Fernandez, Teo Planell, María Romanillos, Lawson Greyson, Riley Nottingham, Jenna Hogan, Jake Ellsworth, Stephen Gurewitz, Carl William Garrison, Jeff Harms, Noah Diamond, Sarah Nicklin

Release Date: October 3, 2025

Genre: Horror

Unrated

Runtime: 1h 55m

Review:

The eighth installment of the V/H/S franchise opts for Halloween specific theme which should be a perfect fit for the anthology, but the shorts are mostly underwhelming and undercooked.  

 

The wrap around device, Diet Phantasma, written and directed by Bryan M. Ferguson has a fun 80s aesthetic which works in its favor until each sequence becomes increasingly repetitive as the film goes on.    

The first short, Coochie Coochie Coo, written and directed by Anna Zlokovic is a solid start by using a well worn haunted house trope and setting up funhouse of gross outs and jump scares.  It may not be groundbreaking, but its effectively constructed story makes it feel like one of the more well rounded entries in the film.  

Ut Supra Sic Infra directed by Paco Plaza of [Rec] fame offers an intriguing set up but plays out in a surprisingly paint by the numbers set up and payoff.  It doesn't help that the characters are all logically challenged as they place themselves willingly in situations that result in fatal situations.  Paco Plaza is one of the most established directors in this volume which makes this short rather underwhelming and disappointing.   

Fun Size, written and directed by Casper Kelly, is one of the goofiest entries here which delivers a handful of gory laughs thanks to the zany set up and murderous mascots that pursue our hapless quartet of drunken trick or treaters.  This entry would have benefited from a bit more world building to flesh out the concept of Fun Size's world since there's painfully little offered up.  

Kidprint, written and directed by Alex Ross Perry, is far and away the darkest and nastiest short in this volume as it deals with a child serial killer in the 90's.  Taking some real life inspiration from Blockbuster's Kidprint which was supposed to serve as real life footage of your child in case they were abducted or went missing.  This short takes that concept down a dark path with little held back in terms of violence against children and gore.  There's a solid kernel of an idea, but it moves too quickly through the reveal with the back half just being relentless gore before its cynically ironic ending.  

The final entry, Home Haunt, written and directed by Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman offers initial promise with its retro aesthetic that's quickly jettisoned once it moves to the present day.  The story is fairly straightforward with things playing out in a fairly predictable manner.  There are some fun, over the top moments but ultimately it doesn't leave much of a mark.  

Overall V/H/S Halloween feels like a rushed, step down from the previous entry V/H/S Beyond which was far more consistent than this entry which is a real shame. 

C