Ice Cream Man – Film Review

Director – Eli Roth
Writers – Noah Belson, Eli Roth
Stars – Eli Roth, Ari Millen, Darrin Baker

When a mysterious Ice Cream Man (Ari Millen) arrives in the sleepy town of Bayleen Bay, he quickly sets about serving the local children the finest frozen treats. Before long, however, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. Beneath his wholesome, clean-cut appearance lies a sinister force, a fiend determined to enslave the town’s children and use them to carry out his nefarious plans!

The film is co-written, produced, directed and briefly features Eli Roth, whose previous directing credits include Hostel (2005), Thanksgiving (2023) and Borderlands (2024). It is the latest release from Roth’s new production company, Horror Section, following Dream Eater and Jimmy and Stiggs, both of which carried the banner “Eli Roth Presents.” This marks the company’s highest-profile release to date.

Despite the presence of Roth and Karen Cliche, the story largely rests on the shoulders of its young cast. A handful of children avoid eating the tainted ice cream for various reasons, becoming the town’s last hope. Chief among them is Jared (Charlie Zeltzer), whose lactose intolerance prevents him from joining the growing horde. When he arrives at school the following morning, he finds his classmates transformed into zombie-like drones who gleefully attack and torture their teachers after having already slaughtered their parents at home. Joining forces with Tommy (Shiloh O’Reilly) and Mia (Kiori Mirza Waldman), Jared assembles a small band of survivors determined to fight back.

The film certainly doesn’t hold back on the gore. Adults are dispatched in an array of gruesome ways, with decapitations featuring prominently alongside garrotting, strangulation, disembowelment and evisceration. While such excess has become fairly standard fare in contemporary horror, there is something particularly unsettling about watching these acts carried out by children. Unfortunately, the visual effects fail to sell the carnage. The CGI is often unconvincing, and while there is certainly a place for low-budget horror (the film reportedly cost just $5.5 million), the most successful examples compensate with ingenuity, clever staging and imaginative practical effects. Here, the filmmakers instead lean heavily on digital spectacle, and the limitations of the budget are exposed all too often.

There is arguably the kernel of a gem here, buried beneath the excess. In the hands of another filmmaker, it might even have become a cult classic. It’s difficult not to imagine what someone like Joe Dante could have done with such gleefully absurd material. Instead, the film frequently struggles with exposition-heavy scenes repeatedly stalling the momentum as they labour to explain the plot. There are flashes of inspired madness and the occasional inventive set piece, but most of its ideas have been executed more effectively elsewhere. Fans of Eli Roth’s unapologetically gory brand of horror may still find enough here to satisfy, but in a year packed with memorable horror releases, this feels unlikely to leave much of a lasting impression.