How To Watch Cristin Milioti's Buddy At Home
Casper Kelly's horror film "Buddy" is one of the more notable success stories of the year. Made on a budget of only $3 million, "Buddy" would gross $27 million, striking a chord with horror fans, and drawing in audiences with its oddball premise. A press release has announced that "Buddy" will be made available to watch on digital on October 13, 2026, and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8. Also, quite amusingly, pre-orders for a special edition VHS copy of "Buddy" will begin on November 24, available on the Witter Entertainment website.
The movie takes place inside a "Barney & Friends"-like children's show from the 1990s called "It's Buddy!," where the lawns are made of astroturf, nearby appliances are alive (Mr. Mailbox! Mr. Trash Can!), and children only exist to learn lessons from giant talking animals. Buddy begins each episode as a small plush toy, but, when called upon by the children, he appears as a human-sized, imagination-fueled bright orange unicorn. Buddy is voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and physically performed by Sergey Zhuravsky. Everything is bright and chipper ... until it isn't. The kids had better play by Buddy's rules, or else they have a tendency to vanish, only to be replaced by another smiling child in the next "episode." They understand that Buddy is a murderous psychopath, and that this VHS-fuzzed universe is a bizarre version of Hell. Cristin Milioti plays a mother in the real world who has an uncanny connection to the bizarro 1997-ish world that Buddy inhabits.
Casper Kelly has a bonkers cartoon/horror sensibility that served him well in TV shorts like "Too Many Cooks" and the Cheddar Goblin sequence from "Mandy." "Buddy" is sharp and twisted, and caused a minor stir when it was released back in August of 2026.
Buddy will be available on digital on October 13, and will later be released on DVD, Blu-ray ... and VHS
Witter Entertainment is a fun boutique video house that makes special-edition VHS cassettes of recent horror movies like "In a Violent Nature," the first two "Terrifier" movies, "Mandy," and many others. There is still a generation of cineastes out there who possess working VCRs (including this author), and these editions are for them. "Buddy" is an excellent choice for VHS, as VHS aesthetics are part of the film.
"Buddy" also stars Delaney Quinn and Caleb Williams as the two children who first notice that something is afoul in the world of "It's Buddy!," while Topher Grace plays a key role in the parallel universe where the Cristin Milioti character lives. Patton Oswalt plays the voice of a talking backpack, and Michael Shannon voices ... well, I don't want to give away the surprise. Horror legend Clint Howard has a small role as an eerie drifter who passes through the "It's Buddy" dimension.
No details have yet been released about what special features might be included on the "Buddy" Blu-ray or DVD editions. One might expect there to be a commentary and/or making-of documentary of some kind, which is still standard practice for the format. Here on /Film, the director revealed a scrapped scene that was a "bridge too far" for producers. One might hope that scene is included. No specific streaming services have been listed yet, so one will merely have to visit their favorite digital shop to see pricing for rentals and digital purchases.
What did critics think of Buddy?
/Film's own Ryan Scott wrote an analysis about how "Buddy" defied the odds and became a box office hit. The film certainly overperformed and created a lot of buzz in the horror community. Its success might be compared to the surprised success of "Terrifier 2" in 2022, as it was a $250,000 gore film that managed to attract $15.8 million in ticket sales. It set the stage for the bigger and scarier "Terrifier 3," which cost a more extravagant $2 million, but managed to make $90.3 million. There is a market for oddball, outsider horror movies that the genre's fans will flock to. "Buddy," as Ryan Scott observed, got a lot out of its minimalist ad campaign that deliberately explained as little as possible. The ads featured placid VHS-world kid-show visuals, paired with people screaming bloody murder. That would certainly get my attention.
Critics were also very positive on "Buddy," as the film currently has an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based in 138 reviews. Robert Abele, writing for the Los Angeles Times, appreciated the film's Adult Swim-like meta sensibilities, saying the film's "horror soul [is] in line with the creepypasta ethos of something undefined yet eternal." Tomris Laffly, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave "Buddy" three-and-a-half stars (out of four), writing:
"It all comes together more seamlessly than you can imagine, while 'Buddy' remains committed to its outrageous bit by dialing up the violence and carnage to both squeamish and uproarious effect across Buddy's monstrous transformations and painful injuries. It's a trippy, ballsy, and genuinely entertaining package that shouldn't work at all. But it does, and I can't believe it exists."
High praise indeed, especially for such a strange, arch movie. Time will tell if it tops best-of-the-year lists.