Naman Shrestha
Helmed by Casper Kelly (known for ‘Too Many Cooks’) in his directorial feature film debut, ‘Buddy’ is a supernatural slasher movie that centers on a bright-orange, talking unicorn named Buddy, who lives in a clubhouse inside ‘It’s Buddy!,’ a beloved children’s TV show. The seemingly harmless and friendly host educates and plays with a group of children in the surreal 1990s-style show, spreading happiness all around. However, when one of the kids defies the unicorn’s rules, he begins to show his true nature and traps all the kids in the mythical Diamond City.
The children try to escape from Buddy’s violent clutches in the TV show. Meanwhile, in the real world, Grace — mother of one of the children — devises a plan to rescue the hostages. The comedy horror film stars Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon, Topher Grace, and Keegan-Michael Key, with most of the drama unfolding in the cutesy world of the Diamond City and Buddy’s clubhouse, where he holds the children captive.
Buddy Filming Locations
The shooting for ‘Buddy’ took place in its entirety in Ohio, particularly in Greater Cleveland. According to reports, principal photography for the horror film commenced in July 2025 and continued for about 25 shoot days before seemingly wrapping up by late August of the same year. One of the crew members, Cedwan Hooks, talked about his contributions on a social media post, stating, “Under the direction of @thehumanbeastbox I exercised every puppet muscle I had on this movie mainly performing as Betty Bunny, and then lending a hand to many other puppet characters! More later on our amazing puppet/practical effects team that made this movie happen. Fun fact – I also developed the plush doll and @robustenergies and I built him.”
Greater Cleveland, Ohio
In order to fill the visual canvas of ‘Buddy,’ the production team utilized the vast and versatile landscapes of Greater Cleveland, which comprises the city of Cleveland and its surrounding areas. In addition to shooting on the streets and in the neighborhoods of Cleveland to depict scenes set in the real world, the cast and crew set up camp on the custom-built set at the old American Greetings campus of TRG Multimedia at 1 American Road, Suite 700, in the city of Brooklyn. It is a content-creation studio space, spread across 160,000 square feet, that houses more than 40 semi-permanent customizable sets, sound stages, a two-story prop room, two food-stylist kitchens, and more.
During a conversation with WKYC, producer Tyler Davidson confirmed: “Most of the film was shot on a soundstage because we were replicating kind of that world of the kids TV shows from the ‘90s.” Meanwhile, the filmmaker Casper Kelly said he enjoyed his time in Cleveland during the shoot. In an interview with the News-Herald, the director stated, “I loved being in Cleveland. I loved that, compared to Atlanta, there’s hardly any traffic. I tried my best to explore Cleveland and go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, go to a Guardians game, but it was hard because working 12-hour days shooting — it’s so exhausting; I can barely get out of bed on the weekends. But I loved working in Cleveland — and eating pierogies — and would definitely come back.” He also revealed that Never Say Dive and Prosperity Social Club became regular hangout spots for the cast and crew.
The real-world scenes involving Cristin Milioti and Topher Grace were mostly taped at a residential property in the city of Solon, with several of its streets also featured in multiple exterior scenes. The filming unit of ‘Buddy’ also traveled to the city of Burton, where they made the most of the amenities at Schoolyard Studio, situated at 14510 North Cheshire Street. The film studio is home to numerous stages and sets, including police stations, boiler rooms, courtrooms, hospital hallways and rooms, locker rooms, and classrooms, making it an ideal filming destination for the Casper Kelly directorial.
When asked about the challenges of puppetry during the shoot in an interview with Rue Morgue, the director explained, “Well, this was the first time I had to use an intimacy coordinator, and it was interesting that it was between a suit actor and a regular actor. The scenes with Willie the marionette were difficult, because there isn’t a lot of control with the strings. And they were all kind of challenging because we just didn’t have enough time. We were always trying to figure out how to tell this story in the fewest amount of shots. But we did get a lot of shots in the end.”
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