Review: Ice Cream Man

Posted by: Matthew Ardill  •  August 4, 2026 @ 9:00am

Filed under: Reviews

A genre of horror that's had a breath of life breathed into it recently is the comedy horror, with this year's Widow's Bay on Apple TV, but the genre has had many iterations over the years. The 80s gave us the Troma social commentary/gross out genre like The Toxic Avenger (1984) on the one side, and then films like House (1985) on the other, where the Greatest American Hero faces the ghost of his Vietnam War buddy. Then in the 90s, we had films like Army of Darkness (1992) and Leprechaun (1992), two very different takes on the genre. But from there, it seemed diminishing returns for many years. 2008's Thankskilling where a haunted turkey wreaks havoc doesn't land the same way as Army of Darkness or even Toxy (though the thread feels like for many years, people were taking all the wrong lessons from Troma).

During the 90s, one of the cult favourite horror comedy films was The Ice Cream Man staring Clint Howard (yes, brother of Ron and the alcoholic space baby from Star Trek). In the film, he played a man released from a mental health institution who takes up the role of ice cream man and slaughters ungrateful kids.

If you're looking for a reboot, well, you're in the wrong place. This film has nothing to do with that. It's inspired by Eli Roth's idyllic upbringing in a Burtonesque way (insomuch as something banal was transformed into something traumatic), but this is the same writer/director who brought us the Hostel series (2005-2011) and the cinematic masterpiece that was Borderlands (2024). Roth's work is divisive. Some feel it's part of a movement to bring the grindhouse aesthetic and mentality back into the horror genre, hence his short in the film Grindhouse (2007). Others feel it's lowest common denominator splatter punk torture porn noise at best, exploitative and bad faith at worst.

Ice Cream Man is the story of a scary ice cream man delivering demonic treats, leaning into the trope of killer kids so far it turns into a somersault. The ice cream impacts people differently based on their age. Adults experience nothing, teens are paralyzed, and kids become demonic homicidal maniacs. I'm pretty sure the teen thing was all based around his ability to get a scene where Sarah Abbot's Lizzie has to wriggle on the ground. It's all pretty bonkers and over the top. Some of the gore is so profoundly disturbing it ventures very much into the realm of cartoonish. It's beyond "torture porn", landing firmly in the realm of torture satire. The adults are beyond incompetent and the children are monstrous, but ultimately it gives us nothing beyond shock and gore. There are a few laughs, but they are few and far between, and when they do land it feels that they land in spite of the writing, not because of it. (Remember, this is the same man who gave us Jack Black as Claptrap peeing out bullets.) The only genuine laugh I really experienced was in the post credits roll.

The cast do an admirable job. Honestly, a large chunk of the Toronto comedy community was hired and deliver some funny bits, while the kids in the film bring all they've got and at moments they're pretty fun to watch – with scary, bitey kids chasing the protagonists and the core squad of middle schoolers doing their best to survive – but they've just been given so little to work with, I feel sort of sad they weren't given a chance to really shine. The ultimate twist is just silly and doesn't really carry much of a punch, which is unfortunate because Ari Millen is creepy as heck and there's a moment right before the big twist reveal where his character shows a malevolent delight that is another glimmer of what COULD have been.

This was Eli Roth's take on IT meets Nightmare on Elm Street, and in the end it didn't give me nightmares, it just left me with indigestion.

Tags: Eli Roth, Ice Cream Man, Horror, Ari Millen, Sarah Abbot

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