Buddy (2026)

Casper Kelly’s Buddy opens as a bright‑eyed parody of 1990s children’s programming, complete with a low‑budget Barney‑style set and Keegan‑Michael Key playing the overly cheerful host. Over three “episodes” the sketch‑comedy format mutates into something far more unsettling, as Buddy’s smile turns murderous and the faux‑children begin to die or flee. The tone flips when the film jumps out of the TV frame into a conventional suburban setting. Cristin Milioti’s Grace lives with her husband (Topher Grace) and two sons, but she’s haunted by the sense that a third child—a daughter—has vanished from everyone’s memory. After spotting an episode of It’s Buddy! on television, Grace is pulled into the show’s nightmarish world, where she discovers that the missing girl, Freddy (Delaney Quinn), is actually her own daughter, erased from reality by the show’s twisted logic. Grace, now cast as the show’s nurse, helps the remaining kids mount another escape, sacrificing herself in the process. Freddy leads the survivors down a well that opens onto a prop room and a mysterious facility where countless TVs broadcast Buddy’s episodes to other children, siphoning them into the program. After finally killing Buddy, Freddy jumps through a TV portal back to the “real” world, only to find herself in an empty room watched by a Spanish‑speaking stranger—far from her original home and with her mother’s fate left ambiguous. Buddy manages to sustain its inventive blend of parody and horror for its 90‑minute run, even earning a rare second‑weekend box‑office bump. The film’s finale, with Freddy stranded in an unfamiliar reality, feels like a deliberate “time’s up” moment, leaving audiences to wonder whether the horror of a corrupted children’s show can ever truly be escaped.