Barney Gives Casper Kelly’s ‘Buddy’ His Seal of Approval

Many of you (including myself) went out to see Casper Kelly‘s Buddy this past weekend, carrying it to yet another box office record for horror this year.

Good job, team!

Me? I thought it was a blast. Perfect? No. But no one is out here making outrageous horror comedies quite like Kelly.

Apparently, Barney–yes, that Barney–agrees.

For those who aren’t aware yet, Buddy is heavily influenced by the popular 90s kids’ show, Barney and Friends. It followed an energetic purple dinosaur named Barney who helped kids learn and have fun. If you grew up in the 90s as I did, the only way you didn’t know Barney is if you were the kid from Room (dark, I know, but hey, this is a horror site). The title character was originally voiced by Bob West, before Dean Wendt took over the role in 2002.

Well, Wendt saw the film…and he loved it!

The actor took to IG to declare, “I loved it, I thought it was hilarious“.

Added Wendt, “From the nostalgic set design to Keegan-Michael Key’s brilliant voice work, they truly nailed it.“

There you have it. Barney is a fan of Buddy, the psychotic killer unicorn…a sentence I never thought I’d write.

After all, the twisted horror comedy is rated R for “bloody violence, some drug content and language,” which sounds fairly standard for a horror movie until you get to the final four words of the rating:

“All involving children.”

Buddy comes from Casper Kelly, the filmmaker behind the brilliantly bizarre viral short Too Many Cooks, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jamie King. The film takes the warm and fuzzy world of a 1990s children’s television show and turns it into something considerably more sinister.

The official synopsis explains that a group of children spend their days singing, dancing, and learning life lessons inside the colorful world of “It’s Buddy!,” hosted by a bright orange unicorn named Buddy. Everything begins to fall apart when one of the children refuses to play along and Buddy isn’t particularly happy about it.