Film

Buddy

A deranged musical unicorn traps his TV-show cast in a surreal, nightmarish dimension where children's entertainment logic meets genuine horror. *Buddy* is comedic and deeply unsettling in equal measure—a film that delights in its own wrongness, built on the collision between the cheerful and the grotesque. It's for people who loved being disturbed by things that should be harmless.

TMDb rating3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a horror-comedy that goes full cartoon chaos, where a sugary children's-show mascot turns demented and the jokes get meaner the longer the set stays locked.

Skip it if you need a grounded story or steady dread, since its loopy, escalating silliness can wear thin and the tone rarely settles.

What it asks of you: Ninety-five minutes of brisk, cheerful absurdity, with the mood swinging quickly and no need to fret over logic; hold it loosely and let the weirdness carry you.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared2012

A hand-puppet series about everyday concepts that descend into existential dread and visual surrealism. Like *Buddy*, it weaponizes childhood nostalgia into something genuinely creepy, with deadpan humor that lands hardest when things are darkest.

But The animation style is deliberately cheap and low-fi, which some find grating rather than unsettling. The pacing is elliptical—it doesn't build toward catharsis.

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared poster

Rubber2010

A sentient killer tire terrorizes a small town, complete with an audience watching the audience. It has *Buddy*'s commitment to absurdist logic and its gleeful disregard for narrative coherence, with a wink to the camera throughout.

But It's deliberately difficult and hostile to conventional storytelling. If you want plot to make sense, this will frustrate you thoroughly.

Rubber poster

Craig of the Creek2018

A children's cartoon that respects its audience's intelligence and sits comfortably in genuine mystery and creeping strangeness beneath the wholesome surface. The tone shifts subtly—adventures can become genuinely eerie.

But It builds atmosphere slowly. There's no immediate gratification, and the early episodes feel deceptively safe before the uncanniness arrives.

Craig of the Creek poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Buddy

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Banana Splits Movie2019

Both films weaponize the uncanniness of colorful mascot-driven entertainment, transforming cheerful IP into nightmare fuel. Both ask: what if the thing meant to delight you turned hostile?

A slasher film built on the corpse of a 1960s children's variety show—beloved mascots become killers. It literalizes the concept of childhood entertainment becoming horrifying, which is *Buddy*'s entire engine, but through body-count horror instead of surrealism.

But It's a straight horror-comedy rather than a strange art object. If you want something weirder than a conventional slasher, this trades surrealism for jumpscares.

The Banana Splits Movie poster
More like this (8)

Teeth2008

Body horror wrapped in an indie-film package about a high schooler with a dangerous secret. Like *Buddy*, it's funny and grotesque simultaneously, using genre conventions as a Trojan horse for something weirder.

But The central conceit involves genital mutilation, even as dark comedy. It's uncomfortable by design, and the humor won't work if you're not onboard with the premise.

Teeth poster

Mandy2018

Nicolas Cage in a vivid, hallucinogenic revenge film that operates in its own logic entirely. It shares *Buddy*'s sense that reality is negotiable and that tone can shift violently without warning.

But It's slow-burn arthouse wrapped in a revenge movie. If you want clear narrative momentum, the cosmic psychedelia will feel like an obstacle.

Mandy poster

Coraline2009

Stop-motion horror about a girl who discovers an alternate version of her home, wrong in ways that are hard to articulate. It has *Buddy*'s instinct for making the familiar unsettling through small, precise distortions.

But It's fundamentally a children's film, so it holds back on actual violence. Some find it too restrained for what it's setting up; others think that restraint is exactly what makes it work.

Coraline poster

The Midnight Gospel2020

An animated series about a spacecaster interviewing people across surreal universes, each episode wildly different in tone. It pairs existential conversation with visual chaos—both funny and moving without choosing a lane.

But It's episodic and thematically dense. The conversational focus means there's no traditional plot, and the experimental format alienates people looking for conventional narrative.

The Midnight Gospel poster

Tusk2014

Kevin Smith's body-horror comedy about a man transformed into a walrus. It's aggressively committed to its premise in a way that generates equal parts laughter and revulsion, much like *Buddy* itself.

But It's genuinely difficult to watch at times, and the horror elements are not played for scares—they're played for an audience discomfort that some find exhausting.

Tusk poster

Lamb2021

An Icelandic folk-horror film about a couple raising a creature that's not quite what it appears. Quiet and strange, it trusts mood over explanation and shares *Buddy*'s willingness to let viewers sit in confusion.

But It's glacially paced and deliberately withholding about plot. If you need clarity and momentum, this feels like watching paint dry in a cold room.

Lamb poster

The Phantom of the Open2022

Both films are built on a protagonist whose understanding of reality is fundamentally broken, and both treat that break with equal parts humor and genuine empathy. The tone is completely different, but the structure is identical.

A deadpan British comedy about a delusional golfer convinced he's a champion, featuring Mark Rylance as a man living entirely in his own logic. It has *Buddy*'s commitment to a protagonist whose internal world has completely divorced from reality—except it's tender instead of sinister.

But It's a quiet character study that some will find slow and precious. The humor is gentle; if you want sharp comedy, this will feel quaint.

The Phantom of the Open poster

The Disaster Artist2017

Both films are fascinated by charismatic delusion—a figure convinced of their own logic, creating something that makes sense only to them. Both are part comedy, part tragedy about a world that doesn't operate the way the protagonist believes it does.

James Franco's film about Tommy Wiseau's delusional filmmaking process—a man completely convinced he's making a masterpiece while creating something incomprehensible. It shares *Buddy*'s interest in the gap between intention and effect, and the comedy that lives in that space.

But It's a Hollywood insider's film that assumes you know *The Room*. Without that context, much of the specific comedy is lost, and the self-referential structure feels flabby.

The Disaster Artist poster

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