You never really know what you’re going to get when you go into an Eli Roth movie. After all, he has proven himself to be one of the most polarising filmmakers working today, with it being like a flip of a coin whether it’s going to be worth your time or not. On the one hand, you have movies like Hostel and, more recently, Thanksgiving, hugely entertaining genre films that both critics and audiences can appreciate. On the other, it can get truly awful, with his most recent effort Borderlands being the worst of the lot. Fittingly Roth’s latest movie, Ice Cream Man, has elements of both the good and the bad, creating something that’s bound to be incredibly divisive with audiences.
Ice Cream Man unironically follows a mysterious ice cream man (Ari Millen) in the quaint small town of Bayleen Bay. There, he serves up his playfully named sweet treats to the majority of the town’s children, with the desserts possessing the power to turn them into murderous maniacs hellbent on killing every adult in sight. A fortunate handful of kids, led by Jared (Charlie Zeltzer) and his sister Lizzie (Sarah Abbott), remain unaffected, making it their mission to put an end to the chaos and homicidal mayhem plaguing the town. However, all may not be quite as it seems.
Undoubtedly, Ice Cream Man is at its weakest when it comes to the narrative. Throughout the vast majority of its relatively short runtime, audiences are likely to have plenty of questions that remain unanswered, including several major plot points the film never properly addresses. That is until the introduction of a character in the final act, who delivers one of the more egregious exposition dumps in recent memory. It explains virtually everything while making the closing twist painfully obvious long before the reveal actually arrives. Had Roth woven those answers into the story more naturally, the ending could have landed far more effectively.
In some ways, though, it feels like Roth is acutely aware that the storyline is the weakest element. Rather than trying to craft something more layered, he doubles down on the concept of young children committing such heinous acts of violence. The result is genuinely disturbing and, at times, rather frightening. That’s where the film excels, delivering some of this year’s most messed-up sequences without letting up for a single minute.
Because of this, audiences going into Ice Cream Man baying for blood will leave extremely satisfied. Roth and his team create some wonderfully inventive kills that ensure the film is a gruesome gorefest from the get-go, delivering some of horror’s most cringe-inducing moments this year. Just when you think you’ve seen every possible way to kill someone on screen, Roth throws another curveball. Those impressive practical and visual effects make those sequences even more toe-curling, even if the film doesn’t maintain that standard throughout.
Alongside the outrageously brutal slashing, Roth injects a decent amount of dark humour. Some of the jokes genuinely land and add to the overall enjoyment. Too many others, however, are done in poor taste often undercutting the tension just as the film builds momentum. It’s one of the very few occasions where the movie’s commitment to excess actually works against it.
The humour also isn’t helped by some painfully bad dialogue in what is undoubtedly a very flimsy script. The dialogue flirts with being so bad it almost becomes fun on more than a few occasions. Given Roth’s track record, it honestly wouldn’t be surprising if that was intentional, in which case, bravo. Judging by the way the final act tries to evoke genuine emotion, though, I’m not entirely convinced that’s the case.
Perhaps the most ironic thing about Ice Cream Man is that its two strongest and most memorable performances come from actors who never utter a single word. Ari Millen as the Ice Cream Man is so creepy that he genuinely sends shivers down your spine, relying solely on deeply unnerving facial expressions. There’s also Charlie Storey, who deserves a mention as the lead demon child. He is profoundly unsettling and commits acts that will haunt nightmares for weeks to come.
While Ice Cream Man may not go down as an instant classic, it delivers plenty of what slasher fans will be expecting. The story is messy and the humour doesn’t always land, but Roth makes up for it with an unhinged energy that’s difficult to resist. Even when it stumbles, it never threatens being boring. Much like Roth himself, Ice Cream Man is frustrating and deeply flawed yet somehow still entertaining enough to leave you wanting another scoop.
