Ice Cream Man is a 2026 splatter/horror film written and directed by Eli Roth and starring Charlie Zeltzer, Ari Millen, Sarah Abbott, and Charlie Storey. This film was actually Unrated because it was entirely self-financed and produced by ‘The Horror Section’ his latest venture into the horror world. The purpose of this studio he made from his own words is to put money into the more DIY, low-budget, grimy, unrated horror films made by unknowns and put some financial backing behind them and turn it into an actual film. He released ‘Jimmy & Stiggs’ made by a couple of unknowns last year under ‘The Horror Section’ and there’s a new film made by an unknown gal called ‘Stilettos’ being released by them later this year as well. It’s a pretty neat idea and cool to kind of open the door to more independent horror filmmakers with bold ideas that studios may not want to touch or have no interest in, but if anyone knows Roth and his latest relationship with Hollywood and the major motion picture studios then you know he also just wanted to find a way to make and release movies that he wanted to make without having to go through them and I sort of commend that as well.
Roth is not new to this over-the-top blood and gore fest sort of filmmaking, although this latest film of his may be the most egregious with it, but we’ll get to that. Cabin Fever, the Hostel films, Green Inferno, Thanksgiving, all had varying levels of nasty and shocking content involved and I’m sure he had to jump through hoops with the major studio heads and the MPAA time and time again until he was given the green light. That consistent frustration mixed with the absolute thrashing that ‘Borderlands’ took not only at the box office but also by critics and audiences alike and after the hell that was for him to make he just decided ‘The hell with all this, I’m going to do my own thing’, and ‘Ice Cream Man’ is the first taste of this new chapter in Eli Roth’s career and people do NOT seem to be taking to it. I just don’t think Eli Roth has a whole lot of good will built up with a lot of modern movie watchers for whatever reason and the scandal of his use of AI in this particular film before it was even released left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths before even getting a chance to see this movie and I think that therefore left them unable to ever give it a fair shot. Don’t get me wrong, I am by no means saying this is a masterpiece and I’m not entirely sure how much AI was used. He said it was just the little animated sequences that played on the kid’s phones or something and I hope that’s the case, but some angry people on the internet are trying to point out a bunch of other moments it was used so who really knows I guess. Admittedly though, I had a pretty good time seeing this movie in a theater with friends if I’m being honest with you.
This almost felt like an ode to low-budget 80s and 90s VHS horror films. Like it wasn’t necessarily good, but it was a good time, and that’s a line that will only make sense to the people that can find enjoyment out of an occasional bad horror film like I can. It’s a teenage sleepover kind of film. The storyline is practically nonexistent for the first 75% of the movie. There’s just a mysterious silent ice cream man that rolls into town and hands treats out of his truck to the kids of this suburban neighborhood and the ones that eat the ice cream become bloodthirsty and start going after and killing all the adults in brutal fashion. That’s basically it. Later on, they tie this really crazy, convoluted backstory into the character of the ice cream man and that made some people roll their eyes, but to me even that felt like it was meant to be tongue in cheek and kind of ridiculous. The film really leans heavy on ‘shock value’ if you will, which is also nothing new for Eli Roth and I enjoy him for that most of the time, so I knew what to expect coming in. Kids cussing at one another, kids murdering adults, things that kids (or really people in general I guess for murdering) shouldn’t being doing but it’s also funnier and crazier when a kid is doing it. The only problem is the child acting is pretty bad for the most part man; I won’t even lie. Like comically bad at times really. I really don’t like to talk crap, especially on children for God’s sake, but it felt like they were just reading or trying to remember lines more than they were actually interacting with one another, especially the main trio. Sarah Abbott who played the older sister ‘Lizzie’ gave a pretty good performance though I thought and Charlie Storey as the creepy little girl ‘Piper’ gave a great performance as well.
I also really liked Ari Millen as the titular ‘Ice Cream Man’. The silent creepy stalker who lured children in with his sweet treats to carry out his damning revenge. He was similar to ‘Art the Clown’ in ways with his performance relying entirely on his facial expressions and physicality because he remained silent. This movie basically felt like Eli Roth’s crazy mashup of ‘Terrifier’, ‘Weapons’, and ‘Pee-Wee’s Playhouse’ in general really. A silent creep, excessive amounts of gore, luring and targeting children in one specific small town, zany facial expressions and physical acting, bright colorful fake idyllic suburban neighborhood. You can tell a lot of inspiration was grabbed from other projects for this, there was even a sequence that was an ode to ‘The Birds’, but he still made the movie feel like its own thing for sure. There were just so many crazy sequences of carnage and death and gore, like to a comic effect on purpose I believe, that it actually began to lose its jarring effect by the end of the film. At first, it’s shocking seeing these kids hack people apart and go crazy and that should be a visual that stays shocking, but since this movie relied on that as its main story beat it almost felt like that was just the story by the end of it and it didn’t make you wince anymore. Which again, I’m not even sure if that was not on purpose. This movie was just weird man. I still enjoyed it for what it was really which was a shocking gore fest, but I viewed it more as a “bad movie” comedy and only about 60-70% of that comedy was probably intentional.
Like I said, this movie is getting destroyed both critically and audience score wise though. Currently sitting at a 28% from critics and a 50% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and a whopping 3.9/10 on IMDb. I mean that’s really bad, and again I’m not saying this is a great film really, but you just have to GET Eli Roth. I think a lot of people either just aren’t into him and don’t get him, which is understandable and okay…OR they haven’t seen anything outside of maybe a movie of his and heard about the potential use of AI and already don’t like him for something he said or supports or the kind of films he makes so they went online to thrash it and him. He’s a polarizing figure in the horror space; I’m a fan of his personally but I know many aren’t and I don’t even argue that point. I enjoy his movies. He tends to mix shocking violence and gore with dumb juvenile humor in nearly every one of his projects and this one is no different and that’s just not going to be everyone’s bag, but I like that he has a sort of style of his own and sticks to it. This won’t be for everyone. I laid out the problems and basically exactly what this movie is, but if you’re sick like me and can get enjoyment out of things like this go check it out in theaters now!
That’ll do it for this one though folks! Thanks for taking some time out today to give me a read. If you like what you see, make sure to like the page on social media and come back to the website often to see new weekly posts over new movie reviews, horror film reviews (old & new), pro wrestling event coverage, and more! Thank you and until next time, be good to one another!
