An orange unicorn has some tricks up his sleeve as the host of a children’s television show in the teaser trailer for Buddy.
Roadside Attractions releases director Casper Kelly’s horror-comedy movie in theaters Aug. 28 after its premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Cristin Milioti, Keegan-Michael Key, Topher Grace, Delaney Quinn, Patton Oswalt and Michael Shannon round out the cast.
Buddy centers on the bright orange unicorn known for hosting a classic children’s program. When one child doesn’t feel like joining the fun, Buddy’s mood changes, and the seemingly perfect world proves to not be what it seemed.
The trailer splices moments of terror alongside scenes of the titular unicorn dancing with children on the set of his show, It’s Buddy!
Kelly, known for creating Adult Swim’s viral 2014 horror short Too Many Cooks, helmed Buddy from a script he co-wrote with Jamie King. Tyler Davidson, Drew Sykes, Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz and Tracy Rosenblum serve as producers.
Executive producing are Kelly, King, Kevin Flanigan, Dexter Braff, Roberto Linck, Nathan McAuley, Emilio Schenker, Gideon Tadmor, Adam J. Wilde, Geoff Yaw and Ryan J. Kelly.
In his review of Buddy for The Hollywood Reporter, chief film critic David Rooney wrote that the movie “stretches its sketch-comedy idea to feature length by upping the gore and the demented detours but doesn’t go far enough to be as extreme or disturbing as it wants to be.”
Rooney added that the film’s “biggest plus is the inspired voice work of Keegan-Michael Key as the title character.”
