That contrast is what makes Buddy work. Bright sets, smiling mascots, catchy songs, and the forced enthusiasm of children's television become increasingly unsettling once the illusion starts to crack. The film taps into the strange discomfort of revisiting entertainment designed to feel completely safe as a child and realizing how uncanny some of it looks through adult eyes.
Fortunately, Buddy is far from the only horror movie to corrupt supposedly innocent entertainment. Killer animatronics, murderous toys, retro broadcasts, and distorted childhood memories have all produced memorable nightmares. These 10 horror movies capture different pieces of the same wonderfully strange energy.
Five Nights At Freddy's
Release Date
October 25, 2023
Runtime
110 minutes
Director
Emma Tammi
Writers
Seth Cuddeback, Emma Tammi, Scott Cawthon, Chris Lee Hill, Tyler MacIntyre
Producers
Jason Blum, Scott Cawthon
Mike Schmidt desperately needs work when he accepts a night security job at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The family entertainment center initially looks like a relic of a happier era, complete with colorful animatronic performers. Mike soon discovers that Freddy and his mechanical friends become considerably less welcoming after dark.
The resemblance to Buddy is immediate. Both movies take entertainment deliberately engineered to make children feel safe and expose something horrible underneath. Five Nights at Freddy's is less surreal than Kelly's movie, but the sight of once-friendly mascots becoming predators puts it squarely in the same nightmare playground.
Willy's Wonderland
Release Date
February 12, 2021
Runtime
97minutes
Director
Kevin Lewis
Writers
Kevin Lewis
Nicolas Cage plays an unnamed drifter who agrees to clean the abandoned Willy's Wonderland overnight after his car breaks down. The job sounds straightforward until the restaurant's collection of enormous animatronic characters starts coming to life and attempting to kill him.
Where Five Nights at Freddy's spends time uncovering the history behind its mascots, Willy's Wonderland gets straight to the absurdity of its premise. Cage barely speaks and seems more irritated than terrified by his attackers. The similarities between the movies helped make killer animatronics an increasingly recognizable horror niche, although Five Nights at Freddy's ultimately avoided some of the problems of earlier imitators.
The Banana Splits Movie
Release Date
August 13, 2019
Runtime
89 minutes
Director
Danishka Esterhazy
Writers
Scott Thomas, Jed Elinoff
Few movies make a more obvious double feature with Buddy than The Banana Splits Movie. The film takes characters from the real 1960s children's variety series The Banana Splits and transforms their television studio into the setting for a bloody horror movie.
A family attending a taping expects songs and harmless children's entertainment. Instead, the show's animatronic stars begin slaughtering people after learning that their program is being canceled. The collision between relentlessly cheerful children's TV and graphic violence makes The Banana Splits Movie one of the closest recommendations on this list.
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Release Date
May 27, 1988
Runtime
86 minutes
Director
Stephen Chiodo
Writers
Stephen Chiodo, Charles Chiodo, Edward Chiodo
Producers
Edward Chiodo
-
Grant Cramer
Mike Tobacco
-
Suzanne Snyder
Debbie Stone
A strange object lands near a small town, where Mike and Debbie discover what appears to be an enormous circus tent. Inside are extraterrestrials resembling grotesque clowns who use carnival-inspired weapons to capture their victims.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space understands that making something frightening does not require stripping away everything colorful or ridiculous. Cotton-candy cocoons and exaggerated creature designs make the movie look almost playful, which only makes the violence stranger. Its cult following has lasted for decades, even though a full Killer Klowns from Outer Space sequel has repeatedly failed to materialize.
Benny Loves You
Release Date
November 21, 2019
Runtime
94 minutes
Director
Karl Holt
Jack decides adulthood requires finally getting rid of the childhood possessions filling his old family home. Unfortunately, one sentimental toy is unwilling to accept the breakup. Benny, his beloved plush companion, comes to life and begins violently removing anyone who threatens his relationship with Jack.
The toy itself is what makes Benny Loves You such a good match. Benny looks adorable even while committing increasingly gruesome acts, and the movie never loses its dark comic streak. Like Buddy, it understands how easily a character designed to comfort children can become horrifying without radically changing its appearance.
I Saw The TV Glow
Release Date
November 21, 2019
Runtime
94 minutes
Director
Karl Holt
Owen is a lonely teenager whose life changes when an older classmate introduces him to The Pink Opaque, a mysterious late-night television series. The show becomes an obsession, but as Owen gets older, his memories of what he watched begin colliding with his understanding of reality.
Jane Schoenbrun's film is far quieter than Buddy, yet both understand the enormous psychological space childhood television can occupy. I Saw the TV Glow draws heavily from the feel of '90s genre television, with connections to shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twin Peaks woven throughout the movie. Here, nostalgia becomes a trap rather than an escape.
Pooka!
Release Date
December 7, 2018
Runtime
90 minutes
Director
Nacho Vigalondo
Producers
Jason Blum, Gerald Olson
Wilson is a struggling actor who accepts a holiday job wearing the costume of Pooka, an enormous plush character created to promote a popular new toy. The gig initially appears embarrassing but harmless. The longer Wilson spends inside the costume, the harder it becomes to tell where his own personality ends and Pooka begins.
That corporate mascot element makes Pooka! particularly effective for Buddy fans. The character was created to be cute and instantly marketable to children, yet the artificial cheerfulness gradually becomes oppressive. Pooka proved memorable enough to return later, and the character's origins and unexpected fan popularity helped turn it into one of Into the Dark's breakout creations.
Skinamarink
Release Date
January 13, 2023
Runtime
100 minutes
Director
Kyle Edward Ball
Writers
Kyle Edward Ball
Two young children awaken during the night and discover that their father has disappeared. Even more disturbing, the doors and windows of their house begin vanishing. With little besides an old television and scattered toys for comfort, they are left in a distorted version of the safest place they know.
Skinamarink looks nothing like Buddy, but the films share an understanding of childhood fear. Familiar domestic objects become frightening because the rules surrounding them have changed. The experimental approach proved unexpectedly potent too, with Skinamarink becoming a viral hit despite its tiny production budget.
Stopmotion
Release Date
February 23, 2024
Runtime
93 Minutes
Director
Robert Morgan
Writers
Robert Morgan, Robin King
Producers
Alain de la Mata, Christopher Granier-Deferre
Ella is a stop-motion animator who has spent years working under the control of her demanding mother. After beginning a project of her own, she becomes increasingly consumed by the disturbing story she is creating and the grotesque figures used to bring it to life.
Robert Morgan makes the handmade nature of stop-motion animation part of the horror. The tiny puppets look tactile enough to touch, which makes their increasingly disturbing presence harder to dismiss. The result became one of 2024's more divisive but critically acclaimed horror movies, finding terror in an art form normally associated with imaginative entertainment.
Late Night With The Devil
Release Date
March 22, 2024
Runtime
86 Minutes
Director
Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes
Writers
Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes
David Dastmalchian stars as Jack Delroy, the host of a struggling 1970s late-night talk show desperate to improve his ratings. During a Halloween broadcast, Jack books increasingly sensational guests before attempting an on-air supernatural demonstration that goes catastrophically wrong.
Late Night with the Devil approaches television horror from a different era than Buddy, but both understand the power of recreating a familiar broadcast format before breaking it apart. The presentation is convincing enough that viewers have wondered whether Late Night with the Devil was inspired by a true story. Once the illusion fails, television itself becomes part of the nightmare.
English (US) ·