Buddy (2026)

This week we’re reviewing Buddy (2026). We dissect its collision of ’90s children’s television and graphic horror, explore Buddy’s need for love as a form of control, and praise Keegan-Michael Key’s emotional range. This episode contains spoilers, beginning at 25:33.

Mentioned in the Episode

Watch the Movie

⁠Buddy (2026)

Main Episode

⁠Casper Kelly dives into the darkness of kids’ television with ‘Buddy’

⁠The Black List Interview: Casper Kelly on BUDDY

⁠Child’s Play (2019)

⁠The Banana Splits Movie (2019)

⁠The Wizard of Oz (1939)

B-side

⁠Barney & Friends

⁠Teletubbies

⁠Blue’s Clues

⁠Pee-wee’s Playhouse

⁠Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

⁠Sesame Street

⁠Gullah Gullah Island

⁠The Puzzle Place

⁠Dora the Explorer

⁠Zoboomafoo

⁠The Big Comfy Couch

⁠Bear in the Big Blue House

⁠The Wiggles

⁠Thomas & Friends

⁠Care Bears

⁠ALF

⁠Clifford the Big Red Dog

⁠If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

⁠Peter Rabbit

Transcript

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Kris 0:03

I love you. You love me. This year we're celebrating our spooky season by reconnecting with a nostalgic horror and pop culture that actually shaped us. And if you also were a 90s kid, there was a very particular kind of television that was waiting for you every morning. There were bright colors, painted sets, talking furniture, songs about friendship, and even adults who seemed way too excited to see you. Now that world became the inspiration for a new horror film from Casper Kelly, the creator of the viral adult swim short Too Many Cooks. Kelly actually developed the idea after producers approached him about making a horror movie loosely inspired by Barney and friends, drawing from the children's television he grew up watching and watching with his own kids. And for a movie built around children's television, its path to the theater took a few unexpected turns of its own. It premiered at Sundance in January and left the festival without a buyer. But a few months later, Roadside Attractions and Sabin Films actually picked it up and kept most of the movie out of its marketing, and eventually sent it into theaters with little more than a few teasers and a very strange children's television host. Since then, a movie that was made for roughly $3 million has now earned more than $20 million domestically, even growing in its second weekend as it expanded into more theaters. And at the center of it all is an idea that probably feels familiar to anyone who grew up watching children's television. Somewhere in the middle of those colorful sets was usually a giant mascot staring directly into the camera, telling you that you're special. Now imagine that mascot could actually see you. Imagine the characters on that TV show weren't actors. And imagine they actually lived inside your TV. And also imagine that the big friendly creature singing songs about kindness, compassion, and cooperation got very angry when you stopped playing along. Buckle up and enjoy the ride, folks, because this week we're talking about Buddy. But first, what were you expecting going into this one?

Sean 2:46

I was 100% expecting a horror Barney right off the bat. I think we all were. Even just looking at the movie poster, the glimpse at Buddy, it all felt very Barney to me.

Kris 2:58

I'm right there with you. I actually didn't know about this until one of my team members at work showed me a clip of Buddy strolling through the woods with an axe and a bandage on his head. And I thought, what the fuck is this? And then I immediately had flashbacks to obsessively singing, I love you, you love me. I'm telling you, I I was down bad for Barney. I think I had a few Barney fits, Barney shoes. It was quite the time. But in this era that we've been in in the 2020s, where we're reshaping beloved children's properties. Looking at you, Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey, and turning it into something horrific. I thought, man, this is either going to be really hilarious or really terrible.

Sean 3:47

I mean, it could go either way, honestly. Just the content is a very fine line of good or bad that we're talking about here. And yet I was thinking the same thing. You're actively, it's just another way that we are actively turning what we grew up on as kids into that twisted horror tale, much like the Puneverse and things like that. So it's definitely something that I was just expecting it to just be just taking everything that we thought, or the everything that we liked from Barney, Blues Clues, things like that as kids, and just flipping it on its head and making it twisted. And I do think that the movie got a tad darker in some places than I initially expected it to go. I mean, not necessarily from the gore, just darker in themes.

Kris 4:32

It was a lot more than I expected. Like it fulfilled my expectations and then went beyond them in a lot of different ways. I'll tell you that, I was also super struck by the aesthetic that you're immediately dropped into because the clip that I saw didn't necessarily feel like what you you're met with when you first start the movie.

Sean 4:56

Right.

Kris 4:56

I thought that was a very cinematic experience, this clip that I saw. But instead, you're dropped into this like four by three formatting, degraded film, it looks like it's sil syndicated television. It's a a very particular and pinpointed style of media, and you're immediately washed over with this. Okay, I'm gonna say nostalgia. I felt very much like, damn, you're really sending me back to my childhood. And I love that because instead of vaguely referencing 90s programming, it feels super committed to recreating the texture of it. So the colors, the songs, the performances, the cheap looking stuff, the forced positivity. And what really sold me, and I don't know about you, Sean, but I was invested in and surprised by how patiently the movie lets that sweetness become threatening.

Sean 5:53

I'm 100% with you. It's definitely it there's a lot to be said with how this movie aesthetically gets you into the realm of feeling like you're in like a 90s kids' TV show. It definitely captures that. There's a lot to talk about with that just as a whole for this episode. So I'm sure we're gonna circle back to that even more throughout the episode. But yes, and I do think it also does a good job at really just bringing you from that children's TV show vibe and just slowly trying to integrate something that's a lot more sinister. You get the unease that something is very wrong, which but it's subtle at first, and then it slowly starts to pick up throughout the movie. It's this is probably the dominant feeling in the movie. Everything is too happy. The colors, like you said, the smiles, the songs, that forced positivity, all of that stuff. It's the kind of manufactured positivity that eventually becomes sinister. So you start watching Buddy's friendliness differently because you know that there's something underneath it.

Kris 6:58

Yeah, and I love that because you think about the movie Child's Play, like not the original Child's Play with Chucky, but the reboot that we got in 2019 with Mark Hamill voicing Buddy. The entire time I was watching this movie, I had Mark Hamill's buddy song, You Are My Buddy, until the end. So I'm like hearing both of these jingles in my head the entire time I experienced this, but this buddy, this buddy is not AI tech gone wrong. He doesn't suddenly flip a switch and then become scary. You have this really insidious moment of hearing irritation that's hidden under that friendliness that you alluded to, Sean. His affection feels controlling, and the same voice that has meant to comfort children makes you deeply uncomfortable, which is why I think the mascot horror angle of this is an inversion that makes it a part of why it works for me. Because, okay, the last mascot horror we saw, I know that Banana Split's got a movie, but Five Nights of Freddy's.

Sean 8:08

Yeah.

Kris 8:08

It doesn't do that for me.

Sean 8:10

Yeah. It's the nostalgia for sure. Like you said, there's just something almost comforting about the visual language in this movie. If you did grow up with Barney and Friends, Sesame Street, Pee-wee's Playhouse, like any of those shows, you recognize that kind of vibe, that vocabulary immediately. But Buddy essentially takes that childhood comfort, that blanket of childhood comfort, and just soaks it in blood. You know what I mean? That's a big part of I think this movie's appeal for sure. And there's just this reoccurring feeling throughout the movie of they actually went there. You know what I mean? There's a couple moments where this movie you're just like, wow, they actually went there. The movie keeps escalating the premise rather than letting you settle into it. And I think between the gore and the increasingly bizarre behavior, it just makes you wonder how far Casper Kelly is willing to take the joke of this movie, you know?

Kris 9:03

And speaking of the joke of this movie, you gotta give it up for Keegan Michael Key because whoo, he is magical as the voice of Buddy, and it's so hard not to laugh right along with him or at him. But what I love is this duality where okay, yes, this is a surreal horror comedy, it'd be so easy to just laugh the entire time, but no, that this thing is fucked up. Like I was reading emotion from a giant orange unicorn constantly. There was frustration, neediness, jealousy, affection, anger, and that is a massive reason why the whole premise of this movie is beyond the initial joke of the movie.

Sean 9:49

Oh, yeah, 100%. There is so much more complexity to this. There's a little bit of genuine sadness, I think, is another way to put it too. I think underneath the comedy and the carnage, there it there are surprisingly uncomfortable ideas of loneliness, abandonment, family conformity, and really just like the need to be loved. You know what I mean? That's where the movie can briefly stop being that haha, evil unicorn type thing and become something a little bit more emotionally uncomfortable.

Kris 10:20

I want to highlight that this Calvin show that takes place in this movie, the credits of it that roll at the end of each episode of the children's show, copywritten in 1999. And you know what else was released in 1999?

Sean 10:37

What?

Kris 10:37

Britney Spears Baby One More Time. And of course, a lyric in that song is my loneliness is killing me.

Sean 10:46

Oh my god.

Kris 10:48

So, Sean, I feel like Buddy's just getting it from all angles.

Sean 10:52

It's true. It's 1999. There's a lot of loneliness going on.

Kris 10:57

There's loneliness, there's sadness. This movie is a fucking bummer. It is funny, but it's also a bummer. It is laughable, but it's also violent, it's weird, it's super mean, it's occasionally disgusting. And to your point, John, it was so much sadder than I was prepared for. And I love how this movie transitions between its tones. It can go from something that's genuinely upsetting to a ridiculous children's song without giving you time to recalibrate, but also without making it so heavy-handed, it feels like whiplash.

Sean 11:34

For sure. I also think just surprisingly, this movie gets, and we mentioned it earlier, but it's just so surprising how dark it actually gets as well. Going in, you might expect this goofy killer mascot, children's TV horror nonsense. And I think what surprised me is how willing Buddy is to move beyond the joke and become genuinely violent and uncomfortable. It's how much the movie relies on, I don't know, it just it's crazy. I think the movie balances a lot, but it's also relying heavily on this absurdity instead of genuine scares, but it definitely integrates this really violent kind of undertone, which I think is very interesting. I guess it's hard to put to words, but the contrast between the two that are happening at the same time. You know what I mean? There's so much positivity happening on the screen, but at the same time, there's violence happening, and at the same time, they're talking about violence in a very positive way.

Kris 12:33

Yeah, it's super fucking cheery, and that cheery is exactly what makes the horror feel more horrific. It's a wild juxtaposition for sure. And they lean in on the commitment and fidelity to a children's TV show, but not just from a cheery place, not just from the warm, fuzzy memories that we have when watching children's TV, but more like this is an environment in which you are conditioning children, you're conditioning them for compliance and obedience. And again, there's the cheerfulness of that, but there's also this insidious and sinister subtext of why are they being conditioned? Obviously, as millennials, we grow up with this stuff, we're no strangers to this. Generations of children have grown up with some sort of media that influences our life lessons, and we learn and adopt behaviors from that all the way into adulthood. But there is something particularly unsettling about this angle to it, and it's because this movie also underscores that with really bloody, really grotesque imagery and a lot of emotional consequence that's attached to what's actually happening outside of just a big fluffy fucking unicorn.

Sean 13:51

Yeah, 100%. And I think that's just where the movie really thrives. It's that, it's the fact that what we were saying earlier that Buddy himself is more complicated than anyone really would have expected in a movie like this. It's not just this evil mascot that kills people and things like that. There's just really that uncomfortable element to Buddy's need to be loved and his obsession with being everyone's friend, and I think that just makes some of you know the behaviors in the movie feel more disturbing than if he were just this mindless killer.

Kris 14:22

Buddy is nothing if not the biggest people pleaser and also the biggest person who needs to be pleased. And those two things don't go together very well. But I do deeply appreciate how hard this movie commits to the bit. It commits to the children's TV show world instead of just winking at you the entire time about how stupid everything is. And Buddy himself is wonderfully expressive, despite being, again, a giant fluffy orange mascot. You can tell what he's feeling without needing the movie to radically change his appearance, although that happens too.

Sean 15:01

I know for sure. I mean, it's all in the voice work at that point. Like there's some movements that happen, right? The Barney movements, if you can picture it in your head, but it's really the voice and the way that you're projecting and the things that you're saying and how you're saying it that I really think makes Buddy come to life.

Kris 15:17

And that's exactly why Key is so essential, because he has that buddy voice that is recognizably the same buddy, regardless of what flavor of Buddy you're getting. If he's adorable, if he's irritated, if he's pathetic, if he is like horrific and monstrous. I cannot express to you enough, Sean, how much range I feel in Key's performance voicing Buddy.

Sean 15:44

It's very, very well done. I don't even think you'd have to, if you haven't watched it by now, you have to watch it to really understand. But yes, 100% that it's just really well done to bring the character to life that I think makes the movie what it is. Because if you don't have that, you don't have anything. It just falls apart for sure. And I think one of the things that was kind of disappointing in the movie was there were parts, there were stretches where the movie feels like it's building towards something really wild, maybe followed by moments where the momentum kind of slows down. The pacing in certain areas of the film feels a little bit uneven, I would say, depending on your tolerance for surrealism, that that can either be part of the charm or make the movie feel longer than it needs to be. Because for me, I liked some of that charm, but then there were also moments where I felt like this could have also been just a short film.

Kris 16:35

I am so sure that we're gonna talk about the same exact part of the movie. And I think for me, I'm right there with you. There is a component of this movie that's for as much as I love that it commits to the bit, it committed to the wrong bit in some moments, there's already so much visual and tonal weirdness in this movie that is it it's inherent to it. I don't think it needs the extra detour that it gives us. That's just me. It feels like it it strains a little bit more than it really should. And from what I recall, there's even there was even debate about that scene even not making it to the final cut of the movie. So I think my my frustrations with this are really only localized to that one, that one specific part. Yeah, because the stuff that I love substantially outweighs the one moment that gave me.

Sean 17:30

God, yeah. Okay, I could see that for sure. And I think also this movie, the comedy aspect, the absurdity of this movie is maybe not going to work for everyone, right? This is probably the biggest your mileage may vary type of scenario. If you click with the movie's particularly brand of absurdity, grotesque humor, you're probably going to have a blast with this film. But if you don't, if you don't like stuff like that, some scenes may feel like they're trying hard, like really hard to get a reaction. I think this is most certainly for the millennials and all the kids that grew up with shows like Barney and all of that. I think this, if you like that kind of absurd horror, different than the norm, just a little bit goofy but dark at the same time, this movie is gonna be for you. I I don't know that if you don't like that stuff, that you will have a good time watching this movie.

Kris 18:24

Yeah, if your inner child is screaming for something a little fucked up, then this is such a great move for you. And if you want your horror comedy cut with a little bit of the savory like brutality, a hundred percent, this is for you. I actually and I was really just trying to consider here for a moment who could this who could not watch this. I feel like this is this movie is so palatable, Sean, and maybe that's a weird thing to say. I feel like just about anybody could watch this movie. Yeah, this is a movie that even your non-horror friends could watch, and they would feel like they're watching something really intense, even though it's pretty chill.

Sean 19:04

Yeah, for sure. I definitely agree. Anyone can sit down and watch this movie. It's just a matter of if you actually buy into it or you actually enjoy it or not. That's the thing.

Kris 19:14

Now I can't wait to see how your score actually shakes out here. But before we actually rate the movie, Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

Sean 19:20

I describe the gore as surprisingly graphic, but presented in a very playful, absurd way rather than as relentlessly grim horror. The gore in this movie is actually pretty damn gnarly in some parts. It's not necessarily the most brutal thing I've ever seen, but there's a surprising amount of blood and some really nasty kills. And I think what's interesting is that the gore is almost as absurd as everything else in the movie. So you're watching something that looks like it escaped from a 90s children's television show, and then suddenly someone's getting absolutely destroyed. And so you're simultaneously going, Oh shit, that's gross, and laughing at how completely ridiculous this whole thing is. It really just earns itself a I would say a solid medium gore score. I think there if it was a little more serious in tone, it would probably be a little bit higher. But I think because of how absurd it leans into the gore, it levels it down just a tad and makes it a little more palatable.

Kris 20:21

And what about the animal report?

Sean 20:23

Fortunately, this movie is safe for all of us animal lovers out here. I think there is violence against some of the uh puppet and mascot characters that may depict some type of animal, but the good news is that Casper Kelly specifically said that he didn't want scenes involving animal or dogs being hurt to push viewers away. So we gotta thank you for that.

Kris 20:43

Thank you for doing what Halloween the game couldn't. Now let's go ahead and get into our ratings. Buddy from 2026, was it a hack or slash? And trying to think I want to kick this off. Damn. I really love this movie. This movie is wildly fun, it's bleak, it's brutal. It is also, I think it in those three words are such a great way to explain the overall foundation of this slash because it takes an inherently silly premise. Silly, goofy guy premise, and it understands that committing harder is funnier and scarier than going halfway on it. When you take the audacity to commit compared with Keegamiko Key, it is just phenomenal. It's a children's show world that feels convincing. The horror gets so much nastier than I could have expected. Now I I'm walking away wanting to see what a blues clues treatment of this could look like. The joke consistently landed for me, and most importantly, I actually cared when the movie started taking things away from the characters that are in it. Good luck with child actors, but I felt like these kids absolutely Nailed in. Now, of course, there are choices I don't love. We spoke about that. But none of them undo what this movie manages to get right. And while I came for a murderous and homicidal mascot in corrupted children's television, I stayed for and did not expect to find a feeling of being genuinely bummed about what these characters had to go through. How can you make me laugh and also make me care so much? And that emotional commitment is what pushes us far beyond a gimmick for me. So a hundred percent, this is a slash.

Sean 22:36

I agree. I I think the movie is really fun. I'll make it very short and sweet. Buddy is like taking all of the nostalgia of growing up with 90s kids TV, Barney, blues clues, all of that, and that and aggressively cheerful, brightly colored world of childhood, and then feeding it a steady diet of absurdity, darkness, and really just enough blood to make you question what the hell you are watching. And the movie absolutely nails that nostalgic children's show vibe, but it leans so heavily into the absurd that it becomes increasingly bizarre, dark, and somehow still pretty darn funny throughout the whole runtime. There's so much dark humor riddled in there. And yeah, it does suffer from some pacing issues about halfway into the movie, and it can feel like it should have been maybe a short film at times, but still, there's enough creativity, humor, and sheer weirdness here to make Buddy a pretty solid horror comedy that I could easily see becoming a cult following over time. For sure, this becomes a cult classic at some point in the future. And I gotta say, I had a pretty good time watching this one. So, you know, hug it out and sing, I love Buddy. Yes, I do, because this one is definitely a slash.

Kris 23:50

Oh, that Buddy from 2026 has earned a universal slash, and there is so much more to say over in the spoiler zone. So if you haven't seen it yet, now's your chance to pause the episode and go check it out. And when we get back, we'll dive into these spoilers together. We'll see you in a bit.

Sean 24:09

This episode of Hacker Slash is brought to you by Happy Time Television. At Happy Time, we're bringing back the magic of children's television with Buddy, your new best friend. There's always a hug, a song, and a fun new adventure waiting for you. And don't forget Bobby and Benny, your other favorite happy time friends. They love to laugh, play, and make sure nobody ever leaves the fun. That's right, parents. Once your little one enters a happy time program, they become part of the family forever. No more bad influences, no more scary outside world, no more pesky channel changing, just smiles, friendship, and mandatory fun. So grab your kids, turn on the television, and let Buddy bring them inside. Happy Time Television, where every child gets a starring role and every show has a captive audience. Happy Time Television is not responsible for missing children, missing parents, unexplained disappearances, or children who remain inside their television after the program ends. Happy time television, stay happy, stay friendly, stay tuned. Happy time, everybody's doing fine. Grab a hand and come inside. There's no need to run and hide. Buddy's here and Bobby too. Fanny's waiting just for you. Laugh and singing, don't be scared, cause happy time means you're staying there.

Kris 25:35

Welcome back, folks. You're now entering the spoiler zone for Buddy from 2026, which has earned a Universal Slash. There's so much here to unpack and so many laughs along the way. But before we get there, let's go through that sleigh-by-slay.

Sean 25:48

Yeah, the kills in Buddy are as creative, exaggerated, cartoonishly brutal, and often played for laughs. Like they're as all of the rest of the themes in this movie, and I think they fit the movie's overall philosophy, right? Take something that looks innocent and child-friendly, then push it into increasingly absurd territory. The kills aren't necessarily about like building the dread. They're often just about the shock of seeing just how far the movie is willing to go. And I think it with the practical effects, the creature feel, like it's the physicality of Buddy and the violence gives it this tangible old school horror comedy quality rather than feeling completely sanitized in CGI. And it just makes everything look really good. So like the you end up getting stuff that like where the kills range from bloody and brutal to completely ridiculous. I I there's a lot to choose from, but I gotta know, Chris, what was your favorite kill?

Kris 26:48

I can't even stop at one. There was so much in here. I think if I had to really break it down, the kills that I hated the most were Grace and Wade.

Sean 26:59

Sure.

Kris 27:00

The funniest kill, buddy, and the kill that I found the most gratifying because fuck that kid, Oliver.

Sean 27:08

Yeah, Oliver, for sure. Oh man, it was so funny, man. Oliver's death of just being like, he's like, come in for a hug, and he's like, it's not gonna hurt, right? And he's like, no, and then he just eats him. He just straight up eats the kid. That's the level of absurdity that we're talking about. We've seen a lot of kills. We saw Wade getting impaled by the unicorn horn that Buddy has, but for Oliver to be actually eaten alive, where is that going? You know what I mean? He has a big bottom stomach, I guess, but that whole ass body is in that guy. I don't know. It's why it's okay.

Kris 27:43

He has room to spare since he shaved off to that point.

Sean 27:46

Yeah, for sure. For sure. I, on the other hand, for some reason just loved the back-to-back mailman deaths that we got. First, mailman Miles literally getting just shanked to death, like literally stabbed so brutally was wild. So when that kill happened, because like before that, we had Josh who got killed off-screen, like we knew something happened. We heard the struggle, we saw the blood on the book, things started to not feel okay. And then I know like we had nurse Nancy, Tommy, the train getting his face ripped off, things like that. But mailman Miles getting brutally stabbed to death was a level up.

Kris 28:25

It was. Man, even you mentioned the train getting his face ripped off. The absolute brutality of murder, not only just of the humans, but of the inanimate objects that are slightly animated in this world. And then we even got Betty Bunny's brutal death, and was also because I guess a human, perceivably a human in a costume, all the blood there. That shit was fucked up. Sean, before we even got to the mailman, we had the nurse being killed.

Sean 28:55

I know.

Kris 28:56

What a funny moment that was because Freddie and Wade are peering in, thinking, okay, maybe everything's actually fine. They walk away, and then Strappy says, Yeah, look how tightly he's hugging her neck. Which is what a fucking funny thing to say. Right. They witness this murder, she's dead, annihilated, getting wrecked. And then it cuts back to the kids singing a song with Betty Bunny about cleaning. It was just absolutely hilarious. Witness this horrific thing, and then bam, Hannah, Oliver, and Betty are just singing. And Bud steps in saying, Don't go in the clubhouse. I've just mopped. This movie tickled me in all the right ways.

Sean 29:43

Yeah, that's what we're talking about here. We see some wild, horrific stuff, but in such a weird environment that you're not used to seeing this kind of stuff in. And then it just bounces right back to the happy-go-lucky singing stuff, the cleaning song. We think of the Barney cleaning song, clean up everybody everywhere. It was a whole thing, man. It just brings you back, and it's just wild to think about. But yeah, though that nurse Nancy was a wild kill, strangled and smashed her face smashed against the desk a few times just for good measure. Like, dang, that's wild.

Kris 30:15

Yeah. Nancy's death, and again, I know I mentioned already, but Wade. I was so gutted when Wade died. I thought, for sure, move over Freddie. Give me a final boy, make him Wade. He had so much grit, he had so much fight. He wasn't quick to believe everything, but once he had some evidence in front of him, he was about it, and he was scrappy, which I absolutely loved. Even when Freddy lacks the fortitude to actually use the aerosol can and the lighter, Wade picks it up and does it himself. He was a man with the plan. And the second time that I watched this movie, I just thought, damn, kid, couldn't you have just climbed over one set of trash cans instead of just trying to make it up without the trash can there now? It was absolutely devastating.

Sean 31:05

Yeah, it was unfortunate for sure, but still a pretty solid kill getting impaled through the fence, and then we get to see Buddy's eye poking through the fence.

Kris 31:14

And the way that they filmed it, so his back up against the fence, Buddy charging in, and the camera is tracking from left to right on both sides of the fence.

Sean 31:25

Yeah.

Kris 31:26

Listen, cinematography was great. I loved the way it looked. Just hated that Wade died that way. And not only to die that way, but to then be puppeteered that way after.

Sean 31:38

Yeah. It was a little bit wild for sure. We didn't want to see Wade go, but it did happen. It did happen. And then I don't think anyone really cared that George and Willie died, although, you know, I I get it. They were previous cast members that were trapped and now living into oblivion, somehow growing old in there. I don't know. It's a whole weird thing. But but the new mailman that showed up when the TV show, when Buddy reset the TV show, sucked a couple more people in, got some more people into the show, some new character replacements. Zatkill was even more wild. If mailman Miles getting stabbed to death brutally wasn't wild, this new mailman literally got impaled by Buddy's horn and spun around like a helicopter blade, which was absolutely brutal, absurd, and awesome at the same time.

Kris 32:25

Yeah, damn. That was one of those where I was like, Am I still watching the same movie? Like, how is this continuing to escalate in such an absolutely horrific way?

Sean 32:34

It's it was crazy. It honestly was absolutely wild. And it just kept getting even more wild. Even you said the bunny or whatever getting her the head ripped off. And and you mentioned something like, is it the blood because there's humans inside? Is it is that another person, like a parent that was sucked in, or it was like, what is this? This is the stuff that I'm thinking about while watching this movie twice now.

Kris 32:56

So yeah, I it's not that I genuinely believe there's a human inside there for sure, but in this magical land, if you think of Buddy, Buddy has a lot of blood, buddy's bleeding, buddy cuts off his hips at some points, and you see flesh costume. Yeah, so I do think that this costume is a living, breathing creature organism situation. I don't think it's literally a human in a suit, but I think it bleeds because it's like a a fantasy representation of a human in a suit. It's it's weird to explain. But Betty Bunny, oh my gosh, how much love she had for Bunny, but also when she was hearing the right things, man, Betty Bunny was a battered woman. Betty Bunny knew what was up, she knew what this abuse was, and she was just for Buddy to understand that she loved him, and it was even more sad to see her go.

Sean 33:56

Terrible, absolutely terrible. Yeah, she just yeah, it was just time, it was time, and a whole cast got it. Cauchy got ripped to shreds. It was a time in that whole sequence of kills as they're trying to get out, and then we just kept losing great women in this movie because Grace I know the sacrifice. I wasn't ready for that. I honestly don't know. It kind of sucks. I don't know if it should have happened that way, but I get it, I get it.

Kris 34:22

Yeah, I kept waiting, wishing, hoping, and just praying that she would come through at the end, that she was silenced but not killed, and then we cut to her body super fucking dead, super depressing. I felt like she worked so hard to break through her own delusion after Freddie was separated from her. Her death is honestly an emotional breaking point, especially when you get the rekindling of her mother-daughter relationship with Freddie Beans.

Sean 34:55

Yeah, it was sad. We just got that. I feel like we literally got that, and then two minutes later she's gone. You know what I mean? I feel like we wanted to live in that a little bit longer, at least appreciate the moment of them like coming back together, but it felt like it all went really fast for her.

Kris 35:11

I I and I think the only way that could have happened would be if she was the first nurse and the only nurse.

Sean 35:19

Right.

Kris 35:20

If we had more time with her in the show's world, but then that movie would have been way too long. And I like the movie as it is. I just damn this actress, first you go on how I met your mother, and now you go here, and it's just yeah, no good luck, no good luck.

Sean 35:36

It's a tough one for sure. It is a tough one, and it's so wild. Like this is now we're at the point where they had sung the song that George and Willie told them was sung and turned Buddy into this evil form, and he turns into this evil form, and now we're at the point where this this new kid that replaced one of the other kids, Tyler, is bringing him back to the happy buddy by just hugging him and saying, I love you, buddy.

Kris 36:02

And he and in doing that, he gets suffocated to death and tossed to the side, which is so sad, but also damn, he was so funny when he just poked out around that tree after buddy was already fucked up. He says, Are we still playing baseball?

Sean 36:15

He just wanted to play a game of baseball. That's all. The whole thing was just trying to play some ball, you know.

Kris 36:20

This kid showed up on the wrong day.

Sean 36:22

Yeah, this is not the right episode to be on, my friend. Sorry.

Kris 36:26

And Oliver was not the right character because what do you mean he outlasted Hannah?

Sean 36:30

I know.

Kris 36:31

I was so sad when Hannah went. She was so fierce, she was afraid, but also brave. She even sings a song. She was cute, supportive, funny. I thought she was a girl's girl, she was down to clown. And then Oliver, I don't want to say fucked up things about a kid, but he was a little narc.

Sean 36:50

He yeah, he literally fucked everything up from the get-go. They were trying to have like a secret moment, and he's like, Buddy, oh buddy, come on, man.

Kris 36:58

Well, he promised he wouldn't be mad. Yeah, you fucking idiot.

Sean 37:02

Yeah, terrible. I'm really surprised he lasted that long.

Kris 37:06

Yeah, honestly, any kids watching this movie have to know that the moral of the story is don't be an Oliver.

Sean 37:12

Yeah, don't ever be an Oliver. But but you mentioned that Buddy was like the the most comical death, or is that what you said? It was like the funniest death in the movie.

Kris 37:22

100% the funniest death for strappy to trip Buddy and then to get impaled with Mr. Mailbox. Honestly, we could have gotten to this answer a lot sooner, kids.

Sean 37:35

That's true. Team effort. This could have happened way long ago. If you just really did some kind of strategy there, it could have been a lot easier, but it was a good moment. We gotta like that for sure.

Kris 37:46

Especially because he gives this big emotional speech about how proud he is of her, and then with his dying breath, he calls her a bitch. No notes, buddy.

Sean 37:53

It was wild. Yeah, the kills in this movie were a lot of fun for sure. There was a lot of interesting moments, a lot of absurd moments, a lot of sad moments and funny moments. It was a roller coaster ride of kills in this movie and a surprisingly high amount of kills, which was pretty fun. But I just gotta say that the movie's strongest trick, if you will, the the strongest element that this movie has going for it is really that childhood aesthetic mixed with the adult kind of gore mixed in there. It's just that balance, that kind of fusion that I think is just something that we haven't really seen before. Even in the Poohverse, right? Even in that, it doesn't feel exactly what this movie captured because you're not capturing what Winnie the Pooh actually felt like. That's not what that is. This movie is actually capturing what watching Barney, what a Barney show or any of those types of kids shows felt like. It's sprinkling in the darkness and the gore and all of that stuff, and something that visually feels like it belongs in one of those shows suddenly becomes very bloody. I think it just makes it hit differently. It genuinely feels like something could have crawled out of a late 90s show and and and then take that world and inject it with this absurd horror. And I think that the practical character work and effects really help sell it. Buddy actually feels like a physical presence in this world, and I don't know, it just makes it more believable and ironically a lot creepier.

Kris 39:23

100% agreed. It is insane to me that they can take something so sunny and so cute and so pretty and make it feel like an actual freaking prison. And Sean, you're talking about the way that this feels so so true to this 90s television. It's because they continuously shift back and forth between even the image formats, the the aspect ratio of these shots, intentionally period appropriate music, you have that practical mascot and puppet work that you alluded to. All of that reinforces selling uh this show for what it is. And I also really love that the show sequences are also played completely straight because again, if everybody treats it like a parody, then we're standing outside the joke. But the level of sincerity in the performances in this movie puts us inside the joke. And that's what helps it be so damn funny, so damn frightening, and also super nostalgic in a really weird kind of mix, even though it feels incredibly hostile. But one of the things that I mentioned this earlier, right? There's the conditioning and the fascism interpretation from the production research that sets this groundwork of something so much darker in Buddy. Everybody's happy, everybody sings, everybody cooperates, and none of it is optional. When you watch these shows growing up, as a kid, you're just like, oh, this is just what doing the right thing looks like. But then Buddy is like, nah, motherfucker, you're gonna dance. You're gonna dance, you're gonna put these shoes on, and you're gonna dance for me. And that's what makes Buddy's constant kindness scarier because it feels even more like a threat. He doesn't need a secret evil personality or this ultra ego. He just has his cheerful unicorn host persona, and that cheerful persona is perfectly capable of controlling and being controlling of all these kids, and then his affection becomes coercive. Hug me harder, tell me you love me, sing, participate, follow the lesson, be happy. And oh man, I'm even just thinking of the most disgusting scene for me, Sean.

Sean 41:45

The grace sequence, the nurse sequence where he's like grabbing her. I was like, okay, this was one of the moments where I was, I'm curious to hear what you thought. But my reaction in that moment was, Oh my god, is this about to go down a path that I didn't even think this movie was gonna go down? And it halfway did, and then it stopped, and I thought it was gonna be really bad for a second, and I was not prepared.

Kris 42:10

Yeah, I really thought that we're gonna get a lot of the controversies that have followed, like Disney and Nickelodeon.

Sean 42:15

Yeah.

Kris 42:16

I thought it was gonna allude to that, but oh my gosh, that entire scene is just this super ugly expression of the idea because he does this whole show me you love me thing, it becomes physically violating. He slips his tongue at her, he asks for a hug, he then starts licking her and groping her, and the second she pulls away, you feel like he is seconds away from just annihilating her. Yeah, and he's just watching her while he grabs the axe, grabs the bandage, and go. Because how dare she pull back from him?

Sean 42:54

Yeah, that was wild. It was absolutely absurd. I thought she was gonna die for sure in that moment, but or at least it was gonna be like a a fight, like something was gonna go down and then it didn't. But wow, yeah. I thought for sure it was going, it was gonna go further than that. I'm actually thankful it didn't go further than that because I think that would have been too crazy for this movie. That would have been a little bit too much. That would have brought me out of the movie a lot more than you know.

Kris 43:19

It absolutely would have. But in that scene, though, can we at least acknowledge Buddy's design looks fucking sick?

Sean 43:26

It does look great.

Kris 43:27

Okay, big fluffy orange unicorn, but again, the burns, the exposed eyeball. Yeah, there's so many parts where you can look at it and you're like, is that burned flesh or is that burnt styrofoam?

Sean 43:39

It was all part of that practical effect of actually using these types of full body suits and things and really just making it look like that, which is great. I think that adds to it, right? Even if it did look like burnt styrofoam or whatever his insides were made of, it adds to the charm of this movie. It just works in this world, in this universe, because if it was too Realistic of flesh, I feel like it wouldn't fit. It's perfect that it almost feels like burnt styrofoam.

Kris 44:06

Oh, it absolutely is. And man, I'm even thinking about how fucking cute little buddy was. Like the little unicorn, the little plushie.

Sean 44:14

Yeah.

Kris 44:15

Especially when there are moments where Freddie and Wade are telling Hannah and Oliver what's going on, and they try to make their escape. But all you see is little buddy just like pop up every once in a while. They look away, they look back, he's in a different place. You get a whole a tiny like sting of music that it feels very horror movie, very simple gag, but it's very effective and also hilarious because it's just a tiny little fucking plushie.

Sean 44:42

It's just a little plushie, but it's there, it's watching you, it's everywhere, it's just following you. Yeah, it was wild, absolutely wild. I also I really loved the moment where Grace is actually being enticed to go into the TV, and I think that that whole sequence was wild. I don't know what you thought about it, but just the first time we're actually seeing how this could happen. How did these kids get in there? It's like the first time that we actually see it. The the show comes on it came on earlier, and that kind of messed with her, but it came on in the middle of the night as she was on the couch or whatever, and you just see Buddy trying to wave her over to the TV screen.

Kris 45:23

It was very poltergeist, John. It was very poltergeist, it's very poltergeist, and I really loved it. And it also felt like the instant Grace entered, even just a portion of her entered the television, Buddy already began erasing her from the real world. Oh, then she glitches away, the room completely changes. Yeah, incredible sequence. And I think even the technical feat of pulling that off, it looked really good.

Sean 45:48

It was so good. That was the one of the best moments in the entire film because yes, the moment that you realize that even because even just like you said, her arm is in the TV and she's trying to fight getting sucked into it or pulled into it or whatever, you realize that her husband can't hear her. Her husband can't hear her, and she's gone already. That's already gone. And then on top of that, you see her like glitch out, and then the whole room changes. Probably presumably the whole house probably changes because now it's depicting a whole life without her. Crazy how that works. Crazy.

Kris 46:21

Yeah, to be clear, her husband wasn't hearing her before then anyway.

Sean 46:25

He wasn't there yet. He was a douchebag. You know, we're gonna get to that guy in a second, but man, what a great scene! It was absolutely fantastic.

Kris 46:34

I did love it, I did love it. I also really loved the buddy backrooms because it was great. How is this a children's television show? At some portion, it looks like it's gonna broadcast studio, but then also then it looks like an elementary school with the mascot being painted on as a mural on the wall, and then just endless hallways of lockers. This really is the buddy backrooms. It was the second you even see multiple buddies and different colored buddies. I thought for sure she was gonna end up in a different TV show. I thought for sure she was gonna get pulled right back in.

Sean 47:12

Yeah, like it's very interesting what in this segment of the movie. In the we'll call we'll just I like the name, we'll just call it the buddy backrooms. But this segment of the movie is I think really interesting because it opens the door for a lot of you know thinking of what could be happening. If there were ever to make another one, what could they do with this story? Because obviously there's still a lot left on the table here. You have one I really liked the whole hall of prior nurses, if you notice that it was like a whole bunch of previous nurses, and so a whole bunch of moms basically there, but also that mural that's that has Buddy and it has Bobby and it has Benny, and they're three different colored of the same type of unicorns characters. I wonder either what happened to the other two specifically, is one of them the decrepit one that was in the room. Is it is that one of the characters? Is there more TV shows? Is this bigger than we anticipated? What's going on here is what I want to know. There's a lot of kids still looking at that TV screen after Freddy escaped back into a whole different country, it looks like. What's gonna happen? The story could go on.

Kris 48:22

Good for her, though, for saving another kid and pushing them right back to where they belong in the some comfort and safety of their own living room. But man, you you just mentioned her waking up and exiting into a whole new country. What a fucking bummer of an ending, Sean. I hate that the it makes the movie even better. I really hate that because Freddie survives, but at what costs? What does surviving really mean here? Her mom's dead, she's completely traumatized. Mr. Mailbox and Strappy are suddenly ordinary, inanimate objects. She ends up in the home of complete strangers with whom she doesn't even share language, she can't talk to anybody about anything, and she has nobody who can possibly understand what just happened to her. It's a bummer.

Sean 49:12

It's a bummer. I was gonna ask you how you felt about the ending of this movie because it is a bleak ending for sure. She survives, but does she really survive? You're still left with questions, right? Her escaping doesn't maybe necessarily mean that her life comes back and her dad remembers her, right? That could still not be a thing. We don't know what this new world of her being out in the real world is, and that's the interesting thing.

Kris 49:38

Yeah, there is no coming back from this. You can maybe get through it, but you're never gonna be back to where the way that it was. And I love that this movie doesn't pretend that escaping automatically means everything is okay. It feels like that's a real lesson that we have to learn as kids, and it's just here giving us the fucking sad part of it.

Sean 49:58

Yeah, it was wild for sure. There's a lot, there's a lot left on the table for sure. One of the stronger scenes in this movie was the Freddie and Grace reunion, the whole build-up to that, like them having the vibes in the nurse's office as she's putting the bandages on and she knows like why the little saying, and then Grace says Freddie beans, and that triggers that, and then it was that that whole realization there that broke the veil. I think that was great.

Kris 50:26

I mean, even when she talks about Finn the fish and that she wanted to pet, it's just so sad, man. It's really sad, and it inspires so much hope. And there are so many moments in this movie where it feels like hope gets lost. Because I even think about when the kids arrived at Diamond City and they realized it's just a fucking cardboard cutout that was like framed differently for perspective and scale, it's an illusion.

Sean 50:50

Ridiculous.

Kris 50:51

So to see the hope drain out of their face in that moment, but then to see the way Freddy finds hope again and Grace finds hope again when they find each other, only for Grace to make the ultimate sacrifice for her daughter's safety, it's just so fucking sad. It's a good thing this movie is so funny, or else I would be crying in it. Thankfully, it does just enough for me to not cry. I think Grace and her presence in this movie really made me like Freddie more because I didn't care for her in the very beginning. I do appreciate that she even just goes on her way to rescue a mailbox, a mailbox that already had his jaw ripped off. What are we what is this mailbox doing? Clearly, what's been done to him is done. He's not gonna get better or worse from this. But between the little acts of courage that we see from her and her starting out as a coward and then really leaning into that, and then finding this real this reconnection with Grace, it makes me fully invested in her getting home. Which, okay, yeah, again, she doesn't. She lands in a foreign country, or at least in a house with a family who does not share the same language as her.

Sean 52:04

Between Freddie and Grace, I think they added a lot of depth to the film for sure. And I think both of them depicted the characters and the chemistry between the two, even for the short time that they were together, I think worked really well. Let's just rip the band-aid off. Ben, the dad, completely douchey, takes the dismissive, unsupportive dad to another level in this movie. Just and also just kind of arrogant. And it's just, I don't know. He was from the the the actors from that 70s show, right? That's where I remember him from. But he still has the same kind of goofy kind of vibe to him in this movie, just arrogant dumbness that I felt like I just hated every aspect of this character, every single bit.

Kris 52:44

Sean, there are two big bitches in this movie, and neither of them are buddy.

Sean 52:48

That's true.

Kris 52:49

Ben, what a jackal. And especially because when Grace is going through these motions and steps to try to figure out what's up with this missing child that she thinks she has, he is unsupportive and antagonizes her along the way. Again, it's a weird situation, but I don't love the way that he talks to her.

Sean 53:09

Yeah, and I wanna I'm wondering though, was this the way that it was when Freddie was still with them? Because the remembrance of the dinner scene where they're all laughing and having a good time felt like a different family than it was afterwards. So there's an impact maybe that happens. So I'm really curious to see is this actually how this character was prior to the events of everything that already happened.

Kris 53:35

Yeah, I'm confident it wasn't.

Sean 53:38

We're hoping. We're hoping, anyways. I could tell you right now, the medium in this movie added a perfect amount of comedy throughout the movie. The whole I take Venmo line was great, like all of that stuff just felt really good. I absolutely loved every bit of the medium in the house.

Kris 53:56

Oh, I absolutely did too. Super fucking funny. Again, the movie is funny enough on its own around that scene, but to have her coming in, it's a really what is a tense moment between Grace and Ben. Absolutely loved it. And again, it felt more like poltergeist.

Sean 54:15

It definitely did, it definitely did. There were some hints there for sure. But I think the real thing, and let's get into it, is when we talked about this earlier, but Buddy has a character, way more complicated than anyone would have expected in this movie. And I actually think that I say at first he's basically this bizarre children's TV character who's a little creepy, right? Absurd. And I think you obviously have to feel like he's dangerous in some way. But underneath all of that, there's this weirdly sad element to him. Buddy desperately wants to be loved, accepted, and everyone's friend. And he genuinely seems to believe that what he's doing is coming from his a place of love almost. And I think the problem is that he doesn't understand boundaries or rejection or the idea that someone might simply just not want to be his friend. I think, and that's what makes him more interesting than just a typical killer in this movie.

Kris 55:14

You know, put Buddy at Camp Crystal Lake, and the kids and the counselors might let him drown too, is what I'm saying.

Sean 55:21

Yeah, there's just something way more disturbing about a villain who thinks he's doing everything out of love.

Kris 55:26

Does he really think it though? Or else he's being so manipulative that he is exerting control and then trying to manipulate and gaslight those around him. That's I think that's more the the read that I got. I yeah, I struggle because maybe he really does believe it, but I struggle to think, just especially with like, don't go in there, I just finished mopping. There's a level of consciousness and deceit there.

Sean 55:54

Yeah, there definitely is a level of consciousness. He knows exactly what he's doing. You even see it when they confront him about Josh's book, and he's just changing his story throughout the whole conversation. For sure, he knows what's going on, but there's also the element of him turning into a completely different character or look or whatever type of monster turning into this like black fucking demon dragon looking unicorn rather than the happy-go-lucky orange unicorn, magical unicorn when people actively say that they don't like him or hate him becomes a whole different thing. And loving him turns him back into that. So, like it's a very it's almost like that love is the is like the power that he needs, but it's a very interesting concept.

Kris 56:37

Yeah, the kids of Dairy Main can just bully Pennywise and he'll deflate like a little clown, but you bully Buddy and he's bullying you right back.

Sean 56:46

Oh, yeah, for sure. Oh man, wild, absolutely wild.

Kris 56:50

Sean, what I do want to get into though is what is undoubtedly the worst part of the fucking movie for me. Did we really need drug trips in the middle of the desert with former cast members and a former puppet who also are making out with each other?

Sean 57:06

Yeah, no, I don't think we needed it at all. It's very weird. How many movies have done this where at some point there's a desert trip scene? You know what I mean? So many movies have gone down this road. I don't know why this one had to be there at all. I get like running away through the forest, it felt like some wizard of odds shit trying to get to fucking Emerald City, meeting some weird characters along the way. That's the vibe I was getting. And I don't know if that whole segment of the movie needed to happen. It felt like they could have been they could have been in the TV show, not on set, not in this weird woods on the way to nowhere. I don't even know why that piece existed. I think that's the part of the movie to me. There was funny moments like Oliver peeing and can't remembering having to ever pee or whatever, and like there's some in the flower getting peed on, and there's some little funny things, but it's also like it didn't need to be none of that needed to be there, and that's where I was like, okay, this could have been cut out, it could have been a short film, maybe we could have or we could have done more with other characters. I don't know. But no, I don't think that whole segment of the movie needed to be there.

Kris 58:11

You know, I was fine with the whole segment, but it was really just the drug trip surrealism that made me way less interested. I liked them going to Diamond City because it reminded me of The Wizard of Oz and following the Yellow Brick Road. So there's something there that I was really into. But the yeah, no, making out the the older man making out with a fucking puppet, and that's a that's their love affair after being trapped for a lifetime in this TV world. So strange. It was just yeah. Someone can explain it to me, and maybe I'll be open to listening, but I just didn't like it. Thankfully, it was fucking weird, but not enough to threaten this movie being a slash for me.

Sean 58:55

Yeah, I feel you. It definitely was strange. It's probably one of the worst parts of the movie. I think for me, it's probably just I guess it's kind of ties into what you're talking about, but it's some of the pacing. I think when we get to that part of the movie, that's where the pacing for me starts to feel a little bit off or it slows down, or we're staying too long in moments that I don't feel like needed to be in the movie. So it's one of those things that I think just didn't do the movie any favors. But again, just like you said, doesn't ruin the movie for you. It's just an aspect that wasn't as enjoyable.

Kris 59:27

Yeah, and dare I say it's also not enough to hold me back from watching it again. I've already watched this movie twice. Oliver remained a punk. That's an important scientific finding. The the the studies show it. But even more genuinely and seriously, knowing where this movie lands emotionally makes the early aspect of the movie, like the children show material, way more interesting than less interesting. There's these little shifts in Buddy's voice and behavior that I feel like I can appreciate more when I already understand what kind of creature personality I'm dealing with. And even the production design, it feels like it's 100% built for revisiting. Because then you're looking at props, you're looking at the background differently because you know how aggressively this movie likes turning seemingly harmless pieces of the show against the characters. And honestly, even between not only visually or the characters and how they change, but the fucking jokes in this movie have rewatch value. Sean, I feel like I laughed more the second time watching this movie than I did the first time.

Sean 1:00:34

Yeah. I agree. I've watched this twice now as well. I think it definitely is you enjoy it definitely even more the second time around for sure. And I think it you have a point. You know what's going on a little bit more, so you're now you're really paying attention to some of the smaller details, the mannerisms, the the way things are said and done. And I think, yeah, the it is funnier the second time around for sure. I definitely would watch this one again. I already said it, I'll say it again. I think this is going to be a cult classic, 100%. People are going to be following Buddy. We're gonna see some Buddy merch out there. I can already see it.

Kris 1:01:12

Time will tell, Sean, if the prophecy becomes true. But for now that you haven't, folks, Buddy from 2026 has earned a universal slash. And while we've certainly had a robust discussion here, the conversation about this movie doesn't end here by any means.

Sean 1:01:26

No, if you enjoyed singing and dancing your way through the episode on Buddy and want to find out how you can go behind the scenes with this episode and more, consider supporting the show by visiting patreon.com/slash hackerslash. This is where you can enjoy even more of the show, including bonus content with early access, extended episodes with our B sides, which are free sides through the spookies season, movie nominations, and live shows. Boy, are my wheels tuckered