Roadside Attractions and Saban Films have released the first teaser for Buddy, the feature directorial debut of Casper Kelly — the creator of Too Many Cooks — and it is exactly as deranged as that résumé would suggest. The horror comedy arrives in theaters on August 28, 2026. You can read our review of the film here.
Buddy plunges viewers into the world of It’s Buddy!, a colorful children’s television program where a group of amnesiac children spend their days singing, dancing, and helping Buddy spread happiness. Buddy is a bright orange humanoid unicorn — think a Mr. Rogers-style figure with a squeaky-clean persona and a dark, violent core. When one child refuses to play along, Buddy is not pleased, and the cracks in this seemingly perfect world begin to show in ways that are funny, unsettling, and deeply wrong.
Keegan-Michael Key voices Buddy, with Delaney Quinn playing Freddy, the child who starts pushing back, and Cristin Milioti (Palm Springs) as Grace, a suburban mother pulled into Buddy’s nightmare world. The cast also includes Topher Grace, Michael Shannon, and Patton Oswalt. Kelly co-wrote the screenplay with Jamie King.
Buddy premiered in the Midnight section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it earned an 84% score on Rotten Tomatoes and generated the kind of excited buzz you only get when something is truly singular. It’s analog horror aesthetics crossed with children’s television nostalgia weaponized — a combination that, in Kelly’s hands, sounds genuinely terrifying.
Buddy opens in theaters on August 28, 2026, via Roadside Attractions and Saban Films.
