Parents looking for a cute unicorn costume for their kids have some unexpected competition this Halloween.
Buddy, the giant orange unicorn from Casper Kelly’s R-rated horror movie of the same name, has officially hijacked Google’s unicorn costume searches, overtaking “kids unicorn costume” for the first time in history, with the trend beginning this past September.
Google’s annual Frightgeist report ranks Buddy the Unicorn as the No. 1 trending Halloween costume in the United States for 2026. Search interest for the character has reached its all-time peak, putting a murderous horror mascot ahead of the traditional unicorn outfits that usually fill children’s Halloween costume aisles.
It’s a pretty funny turn of events for a character whose appearance looks like it belongs on a Saturday morning children’s show. Buddy may be a nightmare for the kids trapped in his fictional television program, but plenty of people apparently want to dress like him for Halloween. The bright orange costume has become one of the year’s biggest pop culture looks, even if the character himself isn’t exactly a role model.
The search trend is especially amusing given the confusion surrounding Buddy when it arrived in theaters. The movie’s colorful unicorn mascot apparently convinced some parents that they were taking their children to see something much more family-friendly than an R-rated horror comedy resting in the burgeoning mascot genre. Reports from moviegoers and theater employees began circulating online after the film opened in August, with some describing young children arriving at screenings alongside their parents only to scream in horror once Buddy got up to his bad ways.
Those stories soon became a running joke on social media. The idea of a parent choosing a movie because it features a cheerful-looking unicorn, only to discover that the character belongs in a horror movie, practically writes its own punchline. The stories are anecdotal, so there’s no verified count of how many families experienced the mix-up, but the online discussion has become part of the movie’s cultural footprint.
Now Buddy is turning up in Halloween costume searches, adding another strange chapter to the film’s run. Google’s Frightgeist list also includes characters from Obsession and Poppy Playtime, but Buddy’s first-place finish is particularly amusing because his look is so closely associated with children’s entertainment.
If you’re shopping for a unicorn costume for your little one, you might want to double-check which one you’re ordering. The orange version currently dominating Google searches comes with considerably more horror baggage than the usual glittery, rainbow-colored outfit.
And if your child asks to see Buddy because the poster has a big, friendly-looking unicorn on it, check the movie’s rating before buying those tickets.
