Indie Films Flood the Penultimate Summer Weekend: Horror Comedy Buddy Leads a Crowded Field
The penultimate weekend of summer 2026 brings a wave of independent and limited-release films to US screens, with eight titles vying for attention as the blockbuster season winds down. Deadline published its specialty preview on 28 August covering the full slate.
Roadside Attractions opens Buddy, a horror comedy from Chris "Casper" Kelly, on 1,258 screens — the widest release of the group. The film is set in the world of It's Buddy!, a fictional 1990s children's television show starring a bright orange unicorn and a group of kids. Keegan-Michael Key voices the title character, with Cristin Milioti, Topher Grace, Delaney Quinn, and Caleb Williams rounding out the cast (IMDb). Roadside Attractions and Saban Films acquired North American rights after the film's Sundance premiere, scheduling it for a September theatrical release before moving it into this late-August slot (Deadline, April 2026).
Buddy arrives with strong momentum: an 87% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a promotional video that went viral on social media, in which the Buddy character playfully ambushes a cinema employee. For a horror comedy playing on 1,258 screens — a wide count for an indie, though modest by studio-blockbuster standards — that combination of critical warmth and organic online buzz is the kind of launch distributors spend months engineering.
IFC counters with Idiots, a raunchy road-trip comedy from filmmaker Macon Blair, on 1,100 screens. Blair, known for The Toxic Avenger, assembled a packed ensemble: Dave Franco, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Mason Thames, Kiernan Shipka, Nicholas Braun, and Peter Dinklage. The story follows two unqualified hires (Franco and Jackson) tasked with transporting a wealthy teenager (Thames) to rehab — a job that spirals into dangerous mayhem. The film premiered at Sundance under its original title, Shitheads, before IFC adopted the cleaner name for release.
Also from IFC, Joe Swanberg's The Sun Never Sets debuted at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago and is set to expand the following weekend. The film stars Dakota Fanning as a woman whose relationship hits a rough patch just as her ex reappears, dragging her into messy entanglements in the Alaskan wilderness. It premiered at SXSW.
Well Go USA Entertainment brings genre firepower with Colony, a Korean zombie thriller from Yeon Sang-ho, director of Train to Busan, on 411 screens. Gianna Jun stars as Professor Se-jeong, trapped inside a sealed biotech facility after a rapidly mutating virus escapes during a conference. The infected undergo horrific transformations, and Se-jeong and a small band of survivors must fight to stay alive. Colony premiered in the Cannes Midnight Screenings section. Well Go USA also released a remastered Train to Busan earlier in August 2026 for that film's tenth anniversary, giving the distributor a natural bridge to its new title.
Well Go USA also debuted Legend of the White Dragon as an event release — one showtime daily across a three-day weekend and Wednesday, on 596 screens. Directed by Sean and Aaron Schoenke, the sci-fi film reunites the late Jason David Frank with fellow Power Rangers actors Jason Faunt, Cerina Vincent, and Ciara Hanna. Frank plays Erik Reed, a superhero fugitive who must clear his name to reunite with his family. The release was timed to National Power Rangers Day, which marks the 1993 premiere of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Focus Features enters the frame with Finding Emily, a romantic comedy — its details lighter in the preview, but the Focus label gives it automatic visibility among specialty audiences.
Rounding out the slate is Boorman and the Devil, a documentary from Yellow Veil Pictures directed by David Kittredge. The film chronicles director John Boorman and his team as they made Exorcist II: The Heretic, one of Hollywood's most infamous productions. Boorman himself features in the documentary, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 1 September 2025 and runs 112 minutes (Wikipedia; Rotten Tomatoes).
For audiences, this weekend offers a genuine alternative to the summer's tentpole leftovers — horror comedy, raunchy road-trip, zombie thriller, superhero nostalgia, and a Hollywood-history documentary, all within a few days of each other.
