Delaney Quinn

A murderous unicorn has the obvious advantage in Buddy (2026), but Delaney Quinn’s Freddy is worth paying attention to. Playing alongside Cristin Milioti as Grace, she gives Casper Kelly’s horror-comedy enough feeling to stop the gore becoming its only attraction. We cared about Freddy because Quinn makes the child matter even amid the mascot’s absurdity. It is a promising performance in a film whose dramatic writing does not always help her.

Quinn’s move from supporting television parts to more substantial film roles has increased what is asked of her. The Beanie Bubble (2023), in which she played Maren, was an early feature credit. By If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025), she was taking a co-leading role alongside Rose Byrne, while Jay Roach’s The Roses (2025) cast her as the younger Hattie Rose. With Freddy, the difficulty is having to make earnest drama sit beside deliberately ugly comedy, without making the child’s feelings seem like an interruption.

Kelly and co-writer Jamie King deserve some credit for that. They take an interest in the children rather than using them as accessories to the mascot, and Quinn has something to work with as a result. The difficulty comes when the script asks for earnest drama without sufficiently preparing us for it. Quinn’s commitment helps, but it cannot make every change of mood convincing. We would be wary of mistaking the strain in the writing for a failure of the young actor asked to play it.

The reservation is that Buddy shows us a capable young actor without quite showing us a distinctive one. Quinn does the emotional work the film requires, but we would like a part that gives her more to do than help its awkward changes of mood. There is enough here to warrant another look, not enough to declare what sort of actor she will become. Try Buddy for Quinn and Milioti, provided a murderous unicorn sounds like a tolerable companion for the evening.