‘Buddy’ Invites an Axe-Wielding Unicorn on Tubi FrightFest

A bright orange unicorn, a relentlessly cheerful children’s television show and an axe are not ingredients that should naturally belong together, but Buddy has other ideas. Casper Kelly’s feature debut takes the artificial comfort of kids’ entertainment and pushes it somewhere considerably darker, with Cristin Milioti, Topher Grace, Michael Shannon, Patton Oswalt and Keegan-Michael Key leading a horror comedy that arrives at Tubi FrightFest next week following its Sundance debut.

The film centres on Freddy, played by Delaney Quinn, a young girl trapped inside a children’s television programme where Buddy, its smiling unicorn mascot, exists to teach kindness, sharing and simple moral lessons. Something goes badly wrong. Buddy snaps, the wholesome format collapses and Freddy and her friends must find a way out before their colourful television home becomes considerably more permanent.

Kelly, best known for creating the viral Adult Swim short Too Many Cooks, directs from a screenplay written with Jamie King. His previous film work includes V/H/S/Halloween, Adult Swim Yule Log and a contribution to Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy, for which he created the unforgettable Cheddar Goblin commercial.

The starting point for Buddy came from Kelly’s childhood fascination with television programmes built around seemingly perfect mascots and mentors. In his director’s statement, he recalls wondering what would happen if the children within those programmes refused to follow their expected roles, and whether a world designed to appear endlessly reassuring might actually be controlling them.

I think we can all agree that there is something unsettling in that idea even before anyone reaches for an axe. Kelly also connects the film to nostalgia itself, questioning the repeated recycling of childhood properties and the increasing amount of life spent looking at screens. It sounds heavy on paper, admittedly, but Buddy is being presented first and foremost as a grotesque and darkly funny horror film rather than a lecture about television.

The film brings together a cast with plenty of experience across horror, comedy and drama. Cristin Milioti, recently seen as Sofia Falcone in The Penguin, stars alongside Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Shannon and Patton Oswalt. Behind the camera, Kelly co-wrote Buddy with Jamie King, while Barbarian cinematographer Zach Kuperstein serves as director of photography and Josh Ethier, whose credits include Companion, Don’t Move and Gretel & Hansel, handles editing.

Low Spark Films, whose previous productions include Emily the Criminal, Take Shelter and The Kings of Summer, produces alongside BoulderLight Pictures, with Sipur Studios and Substance also involved.

Don’t miss your chance to see Buddy at its UK Premiere at Tubi FrightFest. The screenings take place on Friday 28 August 2026 at 8.50pm and on Monday 31 August at 11am. For tickets, visit: Frightfest.co.uk/

Buddy teaser trailer