Ice Cream Man
review by Bobby Blakey
Eli Roth has established himself as one of the premiere horror creators out there with films like Cabin Fever, the Hostel franchise, The Green Inferno and more recently his hit slasher flick Thanksgiving. Now he has teamed up with The Horror Section for his latest film Ice Cream Man that is produced by rap icon Nas and featuring new music from Snoop Dogg. Could this film bring the sweet bloody treat fans crave, or will it melt too fast to entertain?
Ice Cream Man follows an idyllic summer town descending into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results. The film stars Ari Millen (“Orphan Black”) as the titular character, along with Benjamin Byron Davis (Guardians of the Galaxy 3), Karen Cliche (Thanksgiving), Dylan Hawco (“Heartland”), Sarah Abbott (Netflix’s The Body, Poser), Shiloh O’Reilly (Thanksgiving), Kiori Mirza Waldman, Charlie Zeltzer (“The Handmaid's Tale”), Charlie Storey (Thanksgiving) and Roth himself.
From the first trailer I knew this wasn’t going to be a film for everyone for a lot of reasons. I love anything that brings kids into violence and horror, but most people don’t. This film leans into it to an almost ridiculous level with it letting all the kids dish out the variety of brutally gory kills. This makes for a blood-soaked good time that is a visual treat for fans of the genre despite it having very little story whatsoever.
The initial set up introduces us to a variety of kids with each being the worst than the next. This is all before they turn violent and are just a group of horrible humans. Take every bully kid you can think of, and they are thrown in here. I know it is setting us hope to sympathize with the lead kids as well as look forward to those jerks getting killed, but it wears thin making for no likable characters. It is made worse by the fact that most of them never get their due demise but also take it in a place you may not expect.
Unlike his films of the last few years Roth is going back to his roots of a more independent style film feeling like he just wanted to have some fun and showcase a variety of bloody deaths as opposed to really structure anything overly deep. From this front I was highly entertained by some of the violence that is so over the top it will make you laugh, but I think that was by design. There is just enough back story to try to bring it all together, but its nothing special that we haven’t seen before.
This isn’t one of Roth’s strongest films, especially coming off the excellent Thanksgiving, but it is still one that I had a total blast with. Filled with a fun creative kill at every turn with kids at the end of the weapons and brutality makes it stand out as something all its own. This is one of those films that will only be embraced by a select group of people and I am one of them. I lend itself to further entries should he want to but isn’t necessary. There is a funny after credit scene that isn’t bringing anything new to the story but continues off a random kill in the film.
Decide for yourself and chase the ice cream truck to check out Ice Cream Man when it hits theaters on August 7th from Eli Roth and The Horror Section.