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Review: ‘Ice Cream Man’ is a One-Note Splatter-Fest that Serves Up a Double Scoop of Blood and Gore
August 5, 2026Ben MK
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From brain-starved zombies and kill-crazed slashers to supernatural spell-casters, filmmakers in the horror genre have tried virtually every trick in the book when it comes to excuses for spilling some on-screen blood. Yet, no matter how preposterous the proposition or how far-fetched the third-act twist, it seems that every now and then a horror movie comes along that manages to take even the most outlandishly ridiculous idea and turn it into a crowd-pleasing genre gem. Case in point: 2025's Weapons, which entranced audiences and critics alike with its blood-splattered mashup of fairytale folklore and suspenseful mystery. But what if you took that film, paired it with cult classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Dawn of the Dead, and threw them all into the proverbial blender? That's the premise behind director Eli Roth's Ice Cream Man, which follows 12-year-old Jared Mayfair (Charlie Zeltzer), a bullied boy from the small town of Bayleen Bay, who's the first to notice the strange goings-on spreading like a plague through his neighborhood. For decades, ice cream trucks have been a familiar sight on residential streets, bringing sugary treats and ear-to-ear smiles to children of all ages. However, when Jared spots a creepy-looking, moustached ice cream man (Ari Millen) lurking everywhere he goes, he begins to suspect that things aren't what them seem. Jared's suspicions are confirmed when the kids that consume the ice cream man's frozen delights all end up in a zombie-like trance, eventually transforming into mindless, screaming little terrors who only appear interested in violently murdering the parents, adults and authority figures around them. Luckily for him, not everyone under the age of 18 has succumb to the ice cream man's sinister influence. And so, along with his fellow classmates, Mia (Kiori Mirza Waldman) and Tommy (Shiloh O'Reilly), and his older sister, Lizzie (Sarah Abbott), Jared sets out to thwart the ice cream man's schemes. Of course, in true genre fashion, doing so will be easier said than done, especially given the fact that apparently no one around them other than the grizzled old priest at the local church knows who the ice cream man really is. Little do Jared, Lizzie, or their lawyer parents, Marty (Roth) and Alison (Karen Cliche), realize, the branches of their family tree are directly intertwined with the ice cream man's sad and traumatic past. And as part of his plan on getting revenge on all the adults in Bayleen Bay who once wronged him, the ice cream man will stop at nothing until all of the town's underaged citizens have brutally bludgeoned, dismembered, and all-around slaughtered their parents — including Jared and Lizzie. Will these two siblings be able to outwit the ice cream man before he manages to turn every last pre-teen in town into one of his homicidal hell-raisers? And what will happen to all of his hypnotized victims if and when they do finally succeed at defeating him? Written by Roth and Noah Belson, the result plays out as what you might expect if the ending of Weapons was extended to 90 minutes of blood-soaked mayhem. That said, even though Ice Cream Man has just about as much story as a light dusting of sprinkles on an ice cream cone — save for a third-act exposition dump delving into the ice cream man's origins and the reason for his revenge — there's still enough here to keep gore hounds happy and slasher fans entertained. Make no mistake, viewers who are easily squeamish or who believe that a horror movie should have more to it than just one running gag will surely find this double scoop of blood and gore completely unnecessary and more often than not in bad taste. If you're a hardcore horror buff, though, it'll at least keep your eyes glued to the screen as you await the next over-the-top kill. Suffice to say, as the marquee title for Roth's freshly launched, new media company, The Horror Section, one could do a lot worse than this dementedly twisted riff on the old Pied Piper fairy tale. However, at the same time, the film does leave something to be desired, particularly when it comes to its paper-thin narrative. Either way, moviegoers in general aren't likely to be as enamoured by Roth's Ice Cream Man as they were with Zach Cregger's Weapons, even with the inclusion of Snoop Dogg's rendition of the "Ice Cream Song." For those in the mood for a tongue-in-cheek horror diversion, on the other hand, it's a tasty little summertime treat. Ice Cream Man releases August 7th, 2026 from Elevation Pictures. The film is Unrated. Its runtime is 1 hr. 26 min. |
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