Synopsis: An idyllic summer town descends into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results.
Director: Eli Roth
Stars: Charlie Zeltzer, Eli Roth, Ari Millen, Sarah Abbott, Karen Cliché
Over the years, Eli Roth has made some decent movies. His film Hostel (2005) was so disturbing that it legitimately made me hesitant to travel to Europe for a while. Yes, I knew it was fictional, but that movie got into my head. More recently, I enjoyed Thanksgiving, which saw Roth combine ridiculous violence, dark humour and the familiar slasher formula into something entertaining.
Now, Roth is back with Ice Cream Man. If you are wondering whether he has mellowed with age, I can assure you he has not.
This movie is violent.
Very violent.
Ice Cream Man takes place in the suburban town of Bayleen Bay, where a mysterious ice cream truck arrives and quickly becomes extremely popular with the local children. There is something strange about the silent man operating the truck, but that isn’t enough to stop kids from lining up for his frozen treats.
One child who doesn’t partake is Jared (Charlie Zeltzer), who is lactose intolerant. Sometimes allergies can be a blessing.
Jared soon realizes something isn’t right with the children who have eaten the ice cream. They begin behaving strangely, almost as though they’re in a trance. Things go completely off the rails when the affected children turn homicidal and begin brutally attacking the adults around them. Jared and his friends Tommy (Shiloh O’Reilly) and Mia (Kiori Mirza Waldman) are among the few children who haven’t eaten the treats and suddenly find themselves trying to survive their murderous classmates.
And when I say murderous, I mean murderous.
Roth doesn’t just cross the line when it comes to violence; he sprints past it. The violence is so over-the-top that there are moments when you aren’t sure whether you should scream, laugh or look away. After a while, though, the shock value starts to wear off.
That is going to make Ice Cream Man a very difficult movie for general audiences to embrace.
There is a niche group of horror fans who seek out exactly this type of movie. If you’re someone who enjoys the Terrifier films and watches Art the Clown’s increasingly ridiculous acts of brutality, wondering how the filmmakers could possibly top themselves, Ice Cream Man might be right up your alley.
In fact, this film would play extremely well as a midnight selection at a film festival. Imagine a packed theatre at midnight filled with hardcore horror fans who know exactly what they’re getting into. Every ridiculous kill would generate screams, laughter and applause. In that environment, Ice Cream Man could be a blast.
For everyone else, this is a much tougher sell.
There is a difference between using violence to enhance a horror movie and making the violence the primary attraction. Too often, Ice Cream Man falls into the latter category. Once you’ve established that absolutely anything can happen, the gruesome moments eventually start delivering diminishing returns.
That is ultimately why this doesn’t rank among Roth’s best films.
Hostel had an unsettling concept underneath its brutality. Thanksgiving had fun with the conventions of the slasher genre while still delivering the gore audiences expected. Ice Cream Man certainly has Roth’s fingerprints all over it, but it doesn’t find that same balance.
That doesn’t mean the movie is without an audience. Far from it. I can easily see Ice Cream Man developing a cult following among hardcore gore fans. At a midnight screening with the right crowd, it could be an incredibly entertaining experience.
But the violence is simply going to be too much for many viewers.
Ice Cream Man is unapologetically nasty, excessively violent and completely committed to its insanity. For a certain horror fan, those will be selling points.
For everyone else, you may want to skip dessert.
Grade: D+
