A brave girl and her friends must escape a kids television show.

If you like your horror movies weird and unique, then Buddy might be for you. Buddy, a giant orange unicorn, is a Barney-like host of TV show that really has a hold on the kids in his program. The first third of the movie is set within the brightly colored world of the show as a couple kids, Freddy (Delaney Quinn) and Wade (Caleb “C.J.” Williams) try and escape Buddy’s world before the credits roll again. Then, we are introduced to a couple in our reality, Grace (Cristin Milioti) and Ben (Topher Grace) a couple just trying to get by with their two boys. How these stories converge is the crux of Buddy.

The gore is as cartoonish as the sets, and the horror waffles between the eerie and the funny, but Buddy is a wholly unique world for a scary movie. It’s certainly worthy of joining Backrooms and Obsession, as this year’s horror heroes, reinvigorated by fresh talent. Co-writer/director Casper Kelly is the guy that came up with the viral short Too Many Cooks, that viral short that was a seemingly endless opening credits sequence of an 80s TV show, and that same sensibility is at work here.

If you’re okay with weird and like horror then you should get something out of Buddy, the movie and the unicorn (perfectly voiced by Keegan Michael Key).

Jonathan’s grade: B