{"id":14809,"date":"2026-08-04T15:19:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14809"},"modified":"2026-08-04T15:19:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:19:43","slug":"ice-cream-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/08\/04\/ice-cream-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice Cream Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ice Cream Man<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Horror Section\/Horror-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPA rating (strong graphic violence and extreme gore, language- all involving children)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Eli Roth\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Eli Roth and Noah Belson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brandon Roberts\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Simon Shohet\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 7, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ari Millen, Charlie Zeltzer, Sarah Abbott, Kiori Mirza Waldman, Shiloh O\u2019Reilly, Dylan Hawco, Eli Roth, Karen Clich\u00e9, Benjamin Byron Davis, Ivano DiCaro, Sonam Kalsang, Luke Dietz, Carina Battrick, Addison Bell, Charlie Storey, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Darrin Baker, Lorenzo Antonucci, Eli Massillon, Kole Parks, Michele Kaye, Ryan Allen.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s something wrong with the children of Bayleen Bay. Could it be they\u2019re consuming too much junk food? Perhaps.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Only a mind as warped as Eli Roth\u2019s could conceive of Ice Cream Man<\/strong>, a thoroughly twisted horror-comedy that\u2019s NOT a remake of the same-named 1995 slasher starring Clint Howard. He\u2019s the same guy who gave us Cabin Fever (2003), Hostel I & II (2005-07), The Green Inferno (2015) and Thanksgiving (2023). His latest film is an all-out splatter movie that\u2019ll have you laughing while reaching for a barf bag. He doesn\u2019t hold back here; he lets it all fly, blood, guts, brains and limbs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot is paper thin. All is right in the idyllic suburb of Bayleen Bay until the appearance of a mysterious ice cream truck. The titular ice cream man (Millen, Orphan Black) smiles as he hands out frozen treats to all the kids. The only one who doesn\u2019t partake is Jared (Zeltzer), a bullied kid who suffers from lactose intolerance. His condition serves him well in this case. The ice cream has a side effect worse than flatulence. It turns kids into zombie-like homicidal maniacs. They proceed to murder every adult in town.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It takes Jared a minute to figure out something is horribly wrong with most of his classmates save for two others, Mia (Waldman, Small Achievable Goals) and Tommy (O\u2019Reilly, Festival of the Living Dead). Once they figure it out, it\u2019s a fight and flight for survival as they try to outrun their peers and the freaky ice cream man. They\u2019re helped by Jared\u2019s teenage sister Lizzie (Abbott, Ginny & Georgia) who manages to not be affected by the tainted ice cream.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A friend described Ice Cream Man<\/strong> as Weapons meets A Nightmare on Elm Street. I kept thinking of The Children (1980) and Maximum Overdrive (1986). If nothing else, Roth picked some great movies to borrow ideas from. He doesn\u2019t stop at that. He one-ups himself by going full-tilt-boogie OTT with copious amounts of gore. Is it ever bloody! People (parents, teachers, cops, etc.) are dismembered, decapitated, disemboweled and cut in half. In what can only be described as the movie\u2019s piece de resistance<\/em>, one victim has the top of his head cut off so a little girl can scoop out his brains (with an ice cream scoop natch) and plop it in a sugar cone. We also get to see kids playing jump rope with intestines and tether ball with a severed head. I can see why the ratings board refused to grant this one an R (it\u2019s being released unrated).<\/p>\n

\u00a0I thoroughly enjoyed Ice Cream Man<\/strong>. That doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a good film. The storyline is beyond dumb. Roth struggles a little with tone. The acting is terrible. It\u2019s more silly than scary. It\u2019s not going to win any awards. Now let me ask you this. Why would anybody review Ice Cream Man<\/strong> like it\u2019s a legit film? It\u2019s NOT! It\u2019s a freak show, a goofy and gory horror-comedy, a bloodbath that overflows and leaks through the ceiling. The usual rules don\u2019t apply here. What you should be asking instead is this: is it fun? In my never humble opinion, it is. I had this dopey smile on my face the whole time. I knew I was looking at trash, but I didn\u2019t care. You\u2019re talking to someone who still gets a kick out of Troma movies. Come to think of it, Ice Cream Man<\/strong> is like a slightly polished version of one of those low-budget gems.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The gore effects, mostly practical with a few digital tweaks, are quite good. Roth uses prosthetics rather than CGI in depicting extreme violence (e.g. the brain scoop scene). For that, I raise my glass of Coke Zero to him. He also makes Bayleen Bay look unusually bright and sunny, a direct contrast to the carnage and mayhem going on. He inserts nightmarish animated sequences that show up on characters\u2019 phones. It\u2019s both unsettling and funny. Roth\u2019s visual artistry here is brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A few more things about Ice Cream Man<\/strong> and I\u2019ll wrap it up. The kids have dirtier mouths than the Bad News Bears. Even Tanner would blush at some of the words that come out of their mouths. The Ice Cream Man, who never utters a single word, is suitably creepy. The explanation for everything that\u2019s happening is cool even though it leads you to wonder if this town has an Elm Street.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Obviously, Ice Cream Man<\/strong> isn\u2019t going to appeal to everybody. If you have a weak stomach, you are advised to steer clear. Film snobs will avoid it on principle alone. All others, have at it! It\u2019s a whole lot of great blood-drenched fun. Oh yeah, stick around for an amusing end credits scene.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ice Cream Man (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Horror Section\/Horror-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPA rating (strong graphic violence and extreme gore, language- all involving children)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Eli Roth\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Eli Roth and Noah Belson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brandon Roberts\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Simon Shohet\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 7, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ari Millen, Charlie Zeltzer, Sarah Abbott, Kiori Mirza Waldman, Shiloh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ice-Cream-Man-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C930&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14809"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14813,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809\/revisions\/14813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}