The orange unicorn is moving in. Buddy, director Casper Kelly’s horror hit about a children’s show host whose sing-along lessons come with consequences, is available on digital starting today, October 13, following a theatrical run that turned it into one of the year’s unlikeliest success stories.
The distributors marked the launch with a new 30-second promo, which you can watch below.
The digital release is the first stop on the film’s trip home. Blu-ray and DVD follow on December 8, and in the most fitting format imaginable for a movie built to look like a lost 1990s broadcast, a VHS edition is on the way from Witter Entertainment, with pre-orders opening November 24 so it can ship in time for the holidays.
Buddy opened in theaters August 28 on fewer than 1,800 screens and posted the biggest opening of 2026 for a film at that scale. It went on to pass $26 million, becoming the highest-grossing release in Saban Films history and the third-highest-grossing film ever for Roadside Attractions, behind only I Can Only Imagine and Manchester by the Sea, as well as the top-grossing Sundance acquisition of the year. It is also Certified Fresh at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Trevor Decker News has followed the run from its surprise opening weekend through its distributor record chase and its recent international sale to Sony.
For anyone new to the phenomenon, Buddy is set largely inside It’s Buddy!, a fictional 1990s children’s show where the bright orange unicorn Buddy, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and physically performed by Sergey Zhuravsky, teaches lessons to a rotating cast of children, and where refusing to play along has a way of making children disappear. Cristin Milioti stars as a mother in the real world with an unsettling connection to Buddy’s world, and Delaney Quinn leads the young cast. Kelly directed from a script he wrote with Jamie King, and the cast also includes Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon and Topher Grace.
Buddy is available to rent or buy now on digital platforms.
Where to Watch
Streaming data by JustWatch