By George & Josh Bate
Eli Roth, the director of such gruesome films as Hostel, The Green Inferno, and Cabin Fever, has called his latest film, Ice Cream Man, “the most insane” movie he has ever made. That is quite the statement coming from the filmmaker who masterminded the unforgettable blowtorch eye mutilation in Hostel and the live dismemberment in The Green Inferno. Although Roth was ultimately quite hyperbolic in making such a grand claim, he has nonetheless crafted a deliciously sadistic and hilariously brutal movie destined to make you think twice before buying a yummy treat from an ice cream truck again.
Ice Cream Man takes place in an idyllic suburban town that descends into murderous mayhem when a mysterious ice cream man (Ari Millen) serves sweet treats that turn all the children into vicious killers. The only thing standing in the way of the Ice Cream Man and his flock of homicidal children from taking over the town is Jared (Charlie Zeltzer), a young boy who joins forces with two other kids, Mia (Kiori Mirza Waldman) and Tommy (Shiloh O’Reilly), and his sister (Sarah Abbott) to save their town from bloody ruin.
The horror genre has a reputation for perverting seemingly innocuous, innocent objects and people into the stuff of nightmares. Child’s Play transformed dolls from fun playthings to threatening demons. Jaws forever changed what it feels like to swim in the ocean. And no one ever drives behind logging trucks after Final Destination II. Eli Roth’s 10th directorial effort does the same, both for ice cream trucks and… children.
In crafting the story for Ice Cream Man, Eli Roth clearly draws on the legend of Pied Piper, the rat-catcher from German folklore who took retaliation against a town by luring children away from their homes and turning them into his most devoted followers. But that is far from the only story that Roth’s film takes inspiration from. Visuals of children vanishing in the middle of the night, only to eventually become murderous maniacs, evokes Zach Cregger’s Weapons. The ice cream truck’s song, which lures the children in, is reminiscent of the Silver Shamrock song in Halloween III: Season of the Witch. The children themselves are a cross between Dawn of the Dead zombies and Children of the Corn’s titular antagonists. The brutality of the violence, most of which involves children, harkens back to Terrifier III. And, to top it all off, even the Ice Cream Man gets his very own Nightmare on Elm Street-esque origin story.
But the extent to which Ice Cream Man integrates elements from other movies does not detract from enjoying what Roth has to offer. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Pointing out how Ice Cream Man blends ideas from prior stories is part of the fun of watching a film that wears its influences openly on its sleeve. Roth obviously knows he is not making a movie that is going to compete for awards. He even knows that this is not the kind of high-brow, elevated horror viewers expect from the likes of Jordan Peele and Robert Eggers. This is vivid, thrilling, gruesome carnage unburdened by pretension and coupled with pitch-black humor.
It’s the latter that prevents Ice Cream Man from becoming as mean-spirited and off-putting as the likes of Terrifier III or, more recently, Evil Dead Burn. Roth depicts children, not only killing people, but viciously mutilating them in increasingly brutal ways. And yet the film never loses touch with its silly side and surprisingly seldom devolves into disturbing territory. Possessed kids may enjoy a game of jump-rope with human intestines or throw bricks onto the face of a firefighter, but one is more likely to laugh than wince at the violence that unfolds.
With a runtime of under 90 minutes, Ice Cream Man still finds a way to feel overly long and repetitive. After the initial set-up, the resulting film is almost entirely encompassed by children killing adults and a small collective of heroes just barely escaping their clutches. Simply put, there’s only so much kid-committed carnage one can behold before the beat starts to tire viewers.
To maximize the on-screen mayhem, Roth asks the audience to overlook a number of gaps in logic along the way. Why aren’t there more police intervening? What about all the kids who didn’t eat the ice cream? Does anyone own a firearm? These are all questions likely to come up for viewers that Roth is entirely disinterested in answering. For the most part, he gets away with this given the unabashed silly nature of the film, but there are a handful of times in which the lapses in logic push the suspension of disbelief to its limits.
Interestingly, the film’s most disappointing element comes in the form of its titular character. One would think that a horror movie named Ice Cream Man would feature a creepy ice cream man with at least some semblance of personality. A figure that, even if they don’t stand as a horror icon like Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers, is nonetheless memorable and striking.
But, to no fault of performer Ari Mullen, the Ice Cream Man is painfully dull as an antagonist and surprisingly relegated to the periphery of the film. All the violence that ensues is committed by the children as the Ice Cream Man lurks in the background. Entire stretches of the film go by in which viewers could be forgiven that the Ice Cream Man is even a part of the film, such is his relatively small role in the story.
The Ice Cream Man becomes a tad more interesting in a third act that offers a backstory for the character, but this proves to be too little too late ultimately. The blood that flows and the countless, nameless children that make it flow are the main characters of Ice Cream Man, not the titular character nor the heroes who try to stop him.
Speaking of the good guys, Ice Cream Man doesn’t exactly compel with its collective of heroes tasked with facing off against the murderous children. Again, this is not a fault of any of the performers, but, rather, a script that appears disinterested in giving anyone a degree of depth or sense of humor.
All of this means that Ice Cream Man is destined to enthrall certain moviegoers and repulse others. Those who have a fun time watching violence that is so gruesome it’s funny and simply wish to watch a deliciously gory and silly horror movie will likely be entertained. But those seeking clever humor, complex characters, and intricate storytelling best look elsewhere.
VERDICT: 6.5/10
Eli Roth has billed his new film, Ice Cream Man, as “the most insane” movie he has ever made. While the movie doesn’t ultimately live up to this hyperbolic claim, it nonetheless entertains as a deliciously sadistic and hilariously brutal horror flick. Telling a twisted Pied Piper story and drawing inspiration from Weapons, Children of the Corn, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Terrifier III, and more, Roth’s film wears its influences firmly on its sleeve and makes an enjoyable viewing experience out of pointing out all the parallels to preexisting stores. The vast majority of the film, ultimately to a fault, depicts children killing and mutilating adults in increasingly vicious ways, yet Roth approaches the material with such silliness that proceedings seldom encroach on disturbing territory. Although there is great fun to be had watching the possessed kids wreak havoc all over a suburban town, the film eventually becomes quite repetitive and starts to feel long, despite bolstering a runtime under 90 minutes. A personality-devoid and largely peripheral titular character deprives Ice Cream Man of introducing the world to a new horror icon, while the film disappointingly seems entirely disinterested in giving any of the heroes an ounce of depth or sense of humor. All this being said, Eli Roth marks his 10th directorial effort with a film destined to enthrall a certain, particularly bloodthirsty group of moviegoers. Wild, vivid, grotesque, and silly don’t begin to describe a film that marks a return to form for one of the century’s most prominent horror filmmakers.
Ice Cream Man is in theaters nationwide on August 7, 2026.