Remember that sicko viral video Too Many Cooks, a violent 11-minute send-up of classic sitcoms that saw characters fall prey to a serial killer? That was Casper Kelly, and he’s turned that twisted mindset in a slightly different direction with Buddy, which poses the question, “What if Barney was a murderous slasher rather than a lovable, hugable friend”? It’s a film that will delight most Midnight audiences and stoners will dig it, but it’s also hard to escape that parodies of Barney feel so yesterday.
The opening bit is the best, with Buddy taking place in a 1999 kids’ TV show that’s like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and Romper Room mated. The plush, pastel-colored world isfull of talking couches, clocks, a mailbox, a backpack named Strappy, stock human characters with jobs as personalities (mailman, nurse, etc.), and, of course, big furry animal friends. Buddy is a big orange unicorn, and he loves to teach the kids right from wrong, offering them plenty of hugs along the way. Each episode ends with him doing such to all four children in the cast, singing songs as the credits roll.
However, something is off. Buddy is holding a dance party and one boy, Josh, doesn’t feel up to the festivities. Buddy, for some reason, can’t handle this rejection, and keeps pushing it. “I hate you”, Josh says. It’s like something breaks inside of Buddy, and soon, Josh’s bloody book is found inside of the exuberant trash can. When the next episode starts, Josh is gone and replaced by a new kid, Hannah, while Buddy insists the boy is okay. The other children know that ain’t right, but every attempt to get help from an adult ends in more murders. Before long, Buddy is coming after the other kids, too. Their only hope is to escape to Diamond City, an Oz-like land where they can finally be free of Buddy’s killer rampage.
Kelly is smart enough to know that this absurdist premise is overwhelming, and so the film takes a detour, away from the rainbow-colored world of kiddie TV and into reality. Cristin Milioti plays Grace, who, out of nowhere, lets out a primal scream at the dinner table, complaining of icy cold void from one of the empty chairs. She also begins seeing flashes of Buddy, and remembering events that her two kids don’t recall and her husband (Topher Grace) think sound crazy.
Buddy works the further into the wild unknown that it goes, and Kelly’s willingness to put the kids through some truly horrible trauma. There’s no shying away from the violence being done to the children, or the violence that they must do to survive. But there’s also plenty of adult humor that they get into, which most movies would be relucant. The grounded reality aspect fails to match the earlier energy, and doesn’t make enough good use of Milioti. She’s better later on, the closer she gets to Buddy’s deranged orbit.
Carrying most of the acting load is young Delaney Quinn as Freddy, who agonizes over seeing her best friend Buddy become a twisted monster out to slaughter her and the others. Like her friend Wade (Caleb “CJ” Williams), they see right through Buddy. Perhaps they’ve grown too old for kiddie games, and maybe that’s what Buddy is all about, learning to put such childish things in the past. But the past isn’t an easy thing to shake, and holds onto us with a death-like grip.
Keegan-Michael Key’s dopey/sinister vocals as Buddy are hilarious, as are voice cameos by Michael Shannon and Patton Oswalt. But it’s hard to shake that Buddy feels like a movie that’s arriving a few years too late, like a rerun on a forgotten network. What would’ve been subversive and transgresive then are merely good for a few laughs now.
