SerpApi.Org
Casper Kelly's upcoming horror-comedy is nightmare fuel for those with a paralyzing fear of mascots. You can expect nothing less from the director of a V/H/S Halloween segment, both of which are surreal and ultraviolent. Kelly has a knack for subverting expectations — he lures you in with what appears to be innocent homages to nostalgic media; once you're lulled and hooked, he escalates the passive scenes into gorefests. He's best known for his Adult Swim short Too Many Cooks, which starts with a series of parodied sitcom intros. You'll just have to watch the short on YouTube to understand his genius.
It looks like Kelly is leaning heavily on his signature trademark with Buddy, a film about a fictional children's TV show hosted by the titular mascot. Based on the synopsis, Buddy's "It's Buddy!" episodes are lost media that have somehow resurfaced — a couple obtains footage and goes down the rabbit hole. The first teaser already hinted that there's something really wrong with Buddy the Unicorn, and the newest teaser trailer only reinforces that suspicion.
The new teaser offered another glimpse of what happens to the children featured in Buddy's TV show. The trailer quickly drops the facade of a harmless TV episode to reveal Buddy terrorizing the children, and in one scene, showing a child an unspeakable horror. What makes the trailer so jarring is Buddy's resemblance to Barney from Barney & Friends, a real-life children's show made for preschoolers. Buddy is mascot horror in the same vein as Five Nights at Freddy's, which also features an ensemble of animatronic monsters.
Buddy premiered last January during Sundance's Midnight section screenings, receiving largely rave reviews. Buddy boasts an ensemble cast starring Cristin Milioti and Topher Grace as couple Grace and Ben, characters who live in the real world, but Grace is somehow affected by the fictional TV show. Keegan-Michael Key leads the voice cast as Buddy the Unicorn, with actor Sergey Zhuravsky providing motion capture. Buddy also stars Michael Shannon as an anthropomorphic train and ventriloquist doll, Patton Oswalt as the voice of a talking backpack, and Clint Howard as a deranged cowboy puppet.
Kelly was initially hesitant to make "a horror movie in a world with a character like Barney," thinking that premise had been exhausted in Five Nights at Freddy's, The Banana Splits Movie, and Willy's Wonderland. He warmed up to the pitch after coming up with the idea of trapping the victimized children in an actual (fictional) TV show. "I learned so much on this movie," he told Variety. "You can keep practicing and trying to get better, but every scenario is new. But it's so addictive, and I want to make so much stuff. I'm just so excited."
