Ice Cream Man

by Mike McGranaghan

Ice Cream Man sets itself apart from most of the horror movies we get these days, and it does so in a way that might be off-putting for some viewers. Entirely dismissing Eli Roth’s latest venture would be wrong, though. It will hold a distinct type of appeal for a subset of horror fans.

The story is set in a Spielbergian small town where a non-speaking guy (Ari Millen) in an ice cream truck dispenses frozen treats to all the kids, free of charge. This is no ordinary dessert, however. It turns the children into mindless killing machines who immediately begin slaughtering the town’s adults in gruesome ways. Lactose intolerant tween Jared (Charlie Zeltzer) realizes what’s going on and teams up with sister Lizzie (Sarah Abbott) and two friends who also didn’t eat the ice cream to try to foil the ice cream man.

So much has been written in recent years about “elevated horror.” It’s a meaningless term, designed to let people who look down on the genre feel okay about enjoying a horror movie. Horror has always been artistic, from James Whale’s Frankenstein to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs. But there’s also been a counter to that, especially during the 1980s and early 1990s. That was the time of video stores, where the horror section would take up a whole wall and contain dozens of tapes that promised nothing but blood, guts, and carnage.

Ice Cream Man is unapologetically Eli Roth’s tribute to that kind of picture. He’s not interested in dealing with big themes like trauma (as Backrooms does) or controlling relationships (as Obsession does). Roth’s philosophy is “I’m going to create the most messed-up stuff I can.” That’s exactly what he does. The kills are insane, reveling in over-the-top grossness.

At the same time, there’s a hint of macabre humor in them. One shot shows two kids who have turned their teacher into a real-life version of the board game Operation, even putting a red ball on his nose as they remove his organs. Did I laugh at that? Yes, I did. Additionally amusing are the possessed kids, who have multi-colored ice cream stained around their mouths and sprinkles stuck to their chins. They’re like zombies devouring mint chocolate chip instead of brains.

This is clearly a lower-budgeted production. It lacks the polish of Roth’s Sony-released Thanksgiving. Dialogue is cheesy and plotting is thin. The cast of young actors is nevertheless surprisingly strong, with Abbott, in particular, proving to have the stuff to become a bona fide scream queen. Millen effectively oozes a sense of creepiness despite his character’s outwardly benevolent façade.

I’m not going to argue that Ice Cream Man is a good movie in the traditional sense. I do, however, vividly recall going into those video stores and trying to pick out the tapes that promised the cheapest of shocks. I’d watch them with friends and we would giggle in delight over the outlandish gore. This film is a throwback to that sort of thing. I can’t defend it on most rational levels, but as a piece of exploitation fare, it recreates the vibe of the trash classics Roth was obviously inspired by. If you yearn for another taste of that, the film will melt your face off like ice cream.

Note: After this review was written, I learned that Roth utilized generative AI for a few brief shots. For the record, I do not condone the use of AI in any capacity.