Interview: Director Casper Kelly Unpacks the Hilarious Horrors of BUDDY

Welcome to Buddy’s world. As long as you play by the plushy dinosaur’s rules, you’ll live to star in another episode of the TV show host’s candy-colored nightmare. If you disobey, run or die. Casper Kelly’s feature directorial debut, in the vein of The Night of the Hunter, sees kids flee from the titular villain and go on a journey through an Oz-like world. 

The axe-wielding Buddy, physically played by Sergey Zhuravsky and voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, chases children in beautifully hand-crafted environments. There’s a swamp and a western set, even featuring a cowboy puppet voiced by Michael Shannon. In other words, this bloody movie is loaded with color and joy – just as Buddy likes it.

Recently, Kelly spoke with Daily Dead about writing and directing the star of his ambitious feature directorial debut. 

What was the light bulb moment for the character Buddy? Was there a specific time and place you thought of this murderous TV show kids host? 

Casper Kelly: No, not exactly, but it was sort of putting in the worst fears about myself in a way, in terms of his sort of passive aggressive narcissism and everything. So, just trying to channel that [Laughs]. 

I thought a lot about The Shining for Buddy. For a while, the producers wanted Buddy to be more unknowable like Michael Myers, the early Michael Myers. But I didn't feel like that would work because he's such a character in the show. You know him through there. 

People were like, “It's scarier if you don't know them,” which may be the case, but The Shining is plenty scary to me because you hate him. I mean, he's scary, but he's also pathetic, vulnerable, and you sort of understand where he is coming from, but don't empathize with it. 

There's still a ton of mystery around Buddy, though. 

Casper Kelly: That's true.

But you opened up a can of worms when you said this character expressed some of your worst fears about yourself.

Casper Kelly: [Laughs] I know. Now, maybe I should say that even horrible, horrible characters, I like trying to put in a little of myself. Actors will do that when they're approaching a character that they will try to understand and empathize with. 

That totally makes sense. Were you making any discoveries about Buddy during the shoot? 

Casper Kelly: There’s a line that I was inspired to add that wasn't in the script where some stuff's going down and one of the children, Oliver, is upset about it. I added the line, "Go back in the clubhouse, Oliver. This does not concern you." I don't know where that came from. I would not have said that to my kids, but certainly that felt correct of something that an out of control parent might say.

What made orange just right for Buddy?

Casper Kelly: In terms of the colors of Buddy, it became a process of elimination. Well, we didn't want to do purple, obviously. Blue is too sleepy. Green is too much for me. Pink isn't right because a '90s show wouldn't have done a pink male character. Red's too aggressive. So it started to come down to orange, which is just right.

What did you and Keegan-Michael Key want to accomplish with Buddy’s voice? 

Casper Kelly: I wanted the ability to be sincerely nice and have other gears. Keegan was perfect. Once we had the idea of him, that was perfect because he's incredibly versatile. He has a reputation as a very nice person, and it's not a false reputation. So, that just worked very well for this character. 

On a related note, I've always dreamed of doing a thriller where you find out that the killer is Joe Pera. I don't know if you know Joe Pera. 

The comedian? 

Casper Kelly: Yeah. He is the least likely to be a serial killer or something, but that makes it so interesting to me.

[Laughs] I’d see that. There’s so much lovely, hand-crafted work in Buddy. What was important to you when it came to the puppets in the movie?

Casper Kelly: I guess I can be slightly more spoilery, but if they're happy, but on some level they're also victims and enablers in varying degrees. So, you think a lot about the eyes and what their default expressions are. 

Early on in the designing of Buddy, the eyes they designed had very small pupils with white all around their eyes. He looked crazy. I was like, "Oh no, we can't do that." They're like, "Well, he gets crazy later, so it'll help sell that." I'm like, "No, he's got to look warm and comforting. And then when he gets crazy later, we'll just sell that in the acting." And then for a while, producers were curious about adding animatronic eyebrows so he could be angry and stuff. I just felt like that's not right for this character.

We ended up having to get black masking tape to get really big eyes to stick them until they had time. So, we shot for a couple of days with the masking tape eyes until we had time to build new eyes for it. I think that was the right decision.

These nice, yet dead, eyes looking at you.

Casper Kelly: Yes, yes. That's a thing about this subgenre that I try hard to do. I don't want to wink at the audience. I want it to feel as straight as possible. I've committed to it a bit. I'm not winking at the audience very hard.

What’s too winky of a joke for Buddy?

Casper Kelly: It's in the way Buddy would act of like, okay, gosh, well, gee willikers, let's go over there! Where you lay the cuteness lay too thick. You don't want to overdo that. You want to try to do it because Barney has that, but not that much of it. It's that right amount. You don't want to try to parody it by exaggerating. 

Do you ever think at some point a kid or parent is going to see an image of Buddy on VOD and think, "Oh, this looks like a nice kids movie.”

Casper Kelly: I have, but as a parent, I'm kind of hardcore on that. I don't want that. Well, let me back up. I'm kind of hardcore in that I don't want to trick kids into watching this if they're not ready. But then on the other hand, we've all had that experience of when we're young watching a piece of media that we're technically not supposed to watch yet, but it hits us at just the right moment and it can be this very beautiful, influential thing. 

But no, in fact, I'm very thoughtful because I was a frightened kid. I don't want kids to be scared like that. I have a horrible story I'm going to tell you. 

Please.

Casper Kelly: When I went to go see Scream in the theater, in front of me was a family with a little kid who was like, "I don't want to be here. I'm scared. This is scary. I don't want to be here." And I'm like, "That's not right." I went up, missing part of the movie, and said, "Hey, there's this little kid in there. It's an R-rated movie. It's a horror movie. He doesn't want to be there. He's frightened. He's telling his parents, please, I don't want to be there." And they go, "Oh my God, that's terrible. We'll handle it. You go sit back down and then we'll go handle it." So I went and sat back down. And then the manager came over and said, "Hey, your kid needs to be quiet."

No.

Casper Kelly: That sucked.

Were you able to even enjoy Scream at that point? 

Casper Kelly: Not really. A little bit, but... I hope that kid's okay. I guess they're now in their 20s or something, so I hope they turned out okay.

I don't hope for that with Buddy, either, but it could make for a fun gateway horror film. 

Casper Kelly: Poltergeist was one of those for me. I walked into my parents watching The Omen. The governess hangs herself and says, "It's all for you, Damien." That was very scary to me. 

I’ll admit, I’m kind of a late bloomer with horror. I didn't watch Texas Chainsaw and Exorcist until the past 10 years. That's how scared I was of it. 

Alien was kind of my real gateway because it was science fiction as well. So, that really allowed me to enjoy it in a way that… It was scary, but since it's on a spaceship, I'm a little less scared.

What’s a movie that truly terrified you?

Casper Kelly: Paranormal Activity really scared me. It made it hard to go to bed. I had to walk through my house to go to bed after that movie.

What was the right level of intensity and horror you wanted for Buddy? 

Casper Kelly: There's a lot going on. This movie is horror and comedy, some adventure, some drama, some heartfelt emotion, and the absurd. I don't know, it's sort of trying to do some foodie flavor combination that maybe doesn't sound like it should work, but it does. 

It’s going on what feels right and what delivers on the kills and is thrilling and shocking, but at the same time, doesn't cause people to go, “Okay, I'm out.” If you watch a movie where they machete a dog, my wife will just be like, "All right, I'm not watching this dog get macheted." 

Kids are not safe in Buddy. Was there a line for you, though, in what to show and what not to show? 

Casper Kelly: That's a good question. It needed to be that way. I felt like it would not be a horror movie if it wasn't that way. In Willy Wonka, you don't exactly know the kids survive. The other kids survive until the end. Did Augustus Gloop get killed? Did he get drowned in the chocolate? And that's kind of exciting in a way.

Casper, you could make a great Willy Wonka movie if given the key.

Casper Kelly: That would be fun. I did this VHS segment, which I pitched as Willy Wonka in hell, but for VHS Halloween called “Fun Size.” I'm very happy with it, but it would be fun to have a bigger budget and play around with that idea.

After Buddy, what kinds of movies do you really want to keep making? Is Buddy a good representation of the films you want to direct? 

Casper Kelly: I'm writing a script right now. I have other ideas that are playing with sort of specific genres, not kids' shows, but something different. I also have ideas that are maybe more in the realm of me trying to be Charlie Kaufman or something. I guess in a way he plays with genres, too.

His movies can be really scary.

Casper Kelly: Oh yeah. I mean, Synecdoche, New York, that’s his version of a horror movie of the things he’s scared of. 

Basically, I try to do what is the most exciting or also the most likely to be greenlit. There's all those factors. I don't have a good answer for that. I probably should steer my career more thoughtfully. Jane Schoenbrun is someone who's very thoughtfully and smartly steering their career, but I'm more jumping from one opportunity to another.

How many times have you seen the film now? And what goes through your mind when you think about, "This is the movie I've made and the team that I've made?" Because it's such an audacious film.

Casper Kelly: Thank you. I guessed 140 [times], but I'm not sure. That was my guess, pulling it from my hat. When they say movies are your children, it is true, but I love my children unconditionally. And with the movie, some days it's like, “I love it. This is a genius. I'm in the pantheon now.” Other days I'm like, "This is so horrible. Why did I screw this up so hard? Why didn't I get a closeup here? Why didn't I have this part?" Then there was one screening recently where I just fell in love with the music, the score that Michael Yezerski did. I'm like, "Oh, this is so good." So, it just varies every time. It’s very disorienting because on some level, unhealthily, I put my identity in my work and the quality.

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Roadside Attractions will release BUDDY in theaters on August 28, 2026