My quick rating – 5.1/10. An idyllic summer town descends into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet treats with horrifying results. All I needed to know about Ice Cream Man was that Eli Roth was involved. That was enough to get me in the van. Probably not the best decision, considering what happens to the children who climb aboard.
The movie opens with an old-school ice cream truck tooling across the bridge into Bayleen Bay, accompanied by that low-key music that practically whispers, “Something bad is going to happen.” Then it switches to optimistic summer music as we see kids at the park and a local Little League game. I remember those days. Seeing the ice cream man during games and hoping to catch him after the final inning. Of course, knowing this is a horror movie makes watching the creepy-looking Ice Cream Man (Ari Millen) hand out treats to every kid considerably more entertaining. Free ice cream! What could possibly go wrong?
Well…basically everything.
The movie quickly establishes the kid hierarchy. Bullies, geeks, popular girls, and clueless parents. You know exactly who is going to be annoying, who is going to be annoying and murdered, and which adults are going to remain spectacularly useless. Eli Roth plays the dad to Lizzie (Sarah Abbott) and Jared (Charlie Zeltzer), while Karen Cliche plays Mom.
It gets bloody and mean-spirited very quickly. One cone and the killing begins. From there, it’s practical gore, senseless violence and little cartoon animations celebrating the kids’ increasingly horrific behavior. It’s ridiculous, nasty and exactly the kind of thing I wanted from this movie.
I did have one important logistical question. Where the hell were those kids hiding in that freezer? There are apparently dimensions in that thing that physics hasn’t told us about yet. Bit of an oopsie.
But I had fun with it. I’m a fan of Roth‘s unapologetic style, and Ice Cream Man doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t. It’s bloody, violent, and gloriously stupid. If you came looking for Oscar-worthy dialogue and a labyrinthine mystery, that’s on you. You walked into the horror ice cream truck expecting a five-course meal.
I also liked the little twist on the usual Hollywood ending. Finally, some balls. Even the after-credit scene doesn’t exist just to yell, “SEQUEL!” at you.
Unfortunately, the movie comes with an AI controversy. In an interview with Comicbasics.com, Roth discussed the use of generative AI. My take? You are using AI. I keep seeing you hugging your favorite celebrity. That’s reality. What annoys me is the apparent tap-dancing around exactly what was used. I can’t find a video of Roth saying it, but he was reportedly quoted as saying he drew the animation before later acknowledging that some scenes used AI.
Whatever. A couple of old-school animation sequences apparently got some AI assistance, and I wondered if the Ice Cream Man‘s flashback did too. It doesn’t make or break the movie for me.
But Eli, buddy…just say you used it. Nobody expects the Ice Cream Man to be completely organic.
