You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream. Whoever coined that phrase probably didn’t intend for it to sound creepy, but it does. I understand that scream rhymes with cream, but never have I ever heard anyone scream for this beloved sweet treat. But now, that phrase actually makes a ton of sense, thanks to Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man. He turns one of the most innocent activities—going to get ice cream from a truck—into a very bloody and violent horror show. If you are a fan of his work and love splatter and silliness over scary in your horror flicks, then you will like this movie a lot.
Ice Cream Man’s overall premise is pretty straightforward and plays on the inherent strangeness of telling children to be wary of strangers, yet allowing them to consume sweets from a stranger’s truck that trolls the neighborhood. In the film, an unsettling man who dons a 1950s looking white suit pulls into town with an ice cream truck. Kids clamor for those beloved sweet treats on a hot day.
Well, most of them. Jared (Charlie Zeltzer) is lactose intolerant and also bullied by several of his peers, so he’s not necessarily raring to slurp ice cream with them. He also immediately picks up on the very weird energy of the titular ice cream man (played perfectly by a silent Ari Millen) and notices small red flags.
Soon, Jared realizes that his gut feeling was beyond right after all the kids who ate ice cream turn into homicidal maniacs who murder the town’s adults in brutal ways with glee. We’re talking scooping out brains and a far higher stab count than Ghostface and Michael Myers combined. Jared, his sister Lizzie, and a couple of classmates who are still normal try to survive the day and figure out if they can stop this madness.
From top to bottom, this is very much an Eli Roth movie. There’s ample blood, gore, and levels of pure torture that start very early in the film and continuously ramp up. There are a lot of practical effects and some truly absurd and genuinely funny moments.
To set up its final act, Ice Cream Man makes a clumsy attempt to provide a disturbing backstory for the ice cream man and explain why he’s come to town. And honestly, that choice took away from the film’s chaotic aura. Not every villain needs a backstory that attempts to rationalize their vengeance or “humanize” them in any way. This expositional tale also makes a feeble attempt at addressing some pretty vile and serious social issues, but it feels out of place in this very unserious splattershow. Why not have this weird man just use his weird ice cream to turn kids into adult killers for the heck of it?
There are a couple of twists that emerge in the third act, and while partially predictable, they deliver a bleak conclusion that I loved. Just as I don’t care a ton of a villainous backstory, I also don’t care if the ending is not happy. In fact, I prefer it that way and Ice Cream Man delivers a great conclusion.
The journey to get there felt a touch too long even with an 84 minute run time, which I’ll chalk up to some repetitiveness. There’s only so much of seeing incessant hacking and screaming kids with ice cream smears around their face that one can absorb before it is time to move it along. Speaking of those kids, their faces and sick games will haunt me for a while.
It is far from the deliciously twisted feast of Thanksgiving, but it’s fun enough for a Friday night watch. Overall, Ice Cream Man is brutal, bloody, and a bizarre trip that beats its premise into your brain, and will make you shudder the next time you hear the sweet sounds of that little truck.
Ice Cream Man will serve up screams in theaters on August 7.
