Buddy

If you’ve ever felt that Barney the Dinosaur might not exactly be trustworthy and have hypothesized about disturbing things that could be happening when the cameras stop rolling on the set of his magical playground, Buddy is the movie for you.

Casper Kelly’s film goes a step farther than these musings and actually shows the fabric of the kids’ show It’s Buddy! breaking down within the confines of a convincing ’90s-style TV program, complete with colorful production design, cutesy opening credits, anthropomorphized talking objects, the eponymous magical giant plush unicorn (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key), and four children whose provenance is a bit of a mystery.

As Josh (Luke Speakman, Weapons) refuses Buddy’s dance requests, Freddy (Delaney Quinn, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) notices her friend’s bloodied book in the trashcan as the credits roll, and the next episode begins, there’s a sense that Buddy will be composed solely of increasingly troubling installments of the show. While Kelly and his team fully commit to the bit, resulting in gleefully demented viewing, the filmmaker wisely pivots from this singular approach to expand this universe’s mythology, creating something creepier and more emotionally complex in the process.

The addition of suburban mom Grace (Cristin Milioti) and her sudden feeling that she and her husband Ben (Topher Grace) used to have a third child blends well with Freddy and two fellow survivors of Buddy’s wrath making their way to the Oz-like Diamond City. And while there’s plentiful terror in the unhinged giant unicorn tracking down the escapees — during which Kelly works in a surprisingly effective Night of the Hunter homage — dark humor proves the film’s most successful component and elevates the material to near-genius levels.

Along with the truly insane vibe created within the show’s episodes, chuckles and straight up jaw-dropping awe come courtesy of such unlikely sources as talking backpack Strappy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), exiled marionette cowboy Willie (voiced by Michael Shannon) and his ventriloquist/lover George (Clint Howard), and talking flowers that aren’t so happy to be peed on (or have their petals plucked).

It’s a significant step up from Kelly’s witty but ultimately so-so Adult Swim short Too Many Cooks, which turned ’80s- and ’90s-style sitcom opening credits into a slasher film, and suggests that his certifiably insane visions are better suited to feature-length projects.

Now, let’s all huddle up and sing our closing song!

Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions and Saban Films)