Eric McClanahan talks with BUDDY co-writer/director Casper Kelly about the nostalgia-laced horror film in theaters August 28, 2026.
If you were watching Adult Swim in 2014 late at night, you might’ve seen the bizarre opening titles of a fictional sitcom called “Too Many Cooks,” a riff on those classic large-family situational comedies like “Eight is Enough,” “Too Close for Comfort,” or “Full House.” The trippy opening sequence spiraled out to myriad television tropes, such as scifi space shows, Saturday morning cartoons, and eventually became a delirious metacommentary on montage as stalked by a deranged killer. The short managed to both comfort and terrify, perfectly blending the saccharine nature of old sitcoms with a foreboding sense of dread as the killer usurps the beautiful smiles and situations.
Or maybe you recall the 2018 horror/action mindfuck MANDY, directed by Panos Cosmatos and starring Nicolas Cage as a man driven to bloody vengeance after his beloved is murdered by an evil gang of cultists. Rocking the conventional tone of a blood-soaked revenge fantasy is a retro commercial within the film seen on television depicting the Cheddar Goblin, a green beast of evil intent who vomits macaroni-and-cheese all over laughing children.
What do these two nostalgia-soaked descents into madness have in common? Director Casper Kelly, who has now helmed his feature film debut with BUDDY, releasing in theaters August 28, 2026 after making waves at Sundance this January. The film stars Delaney Quinn (IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU) as Freddy, one of several smiling kids dancing along in the children’s television show “It’s Buddy!”
“Remember BUDDY—the bright orange unicorn and star of that