ICE CREAM MAN

Ice Cream Man may feature gleefully gory kill sequences full of blood, carnage and outstanding practical effects to bring them to life, but the rest of Eli Roth’s latest horror film scrapes the bottom of the barrel in terms of filmmaking and storytelling with disgusting outdated humour, underdeveloped writing and unnecessary generative AI to result in one of the year’s worst films.

If there is a horror director known for pushing the boundaries of what can be done and accepted by audiences in a studio horror film, it is the gory and grotesque Eli Roth. With down right disturbing films like Cabin Fever and Hostel that rightfully helped make Roth a big name within the horror genre, and 2023’s Thanksgiving which was his most commercial film that still tested audiences’ tolerance for disturbing holiday themed kills, Roth is unapologetically unrestrained in his filmmaking while having a great reverence for the horror genre. For his first feature film under his new independent production company, The Horror Section, Roth goes for a sickly sweet, homicidal horror flick with Ice Cream Man that is never short on gore and impressive special effects to make viewers squirm. But sadly, the entire production is undone by terrible writing, jokes about autism and bulimia that are no longer acceptable in today’s society, and a concerning use of generative AI, giving viewers ample reason to skip Roth’s latest film.

After making audiences sick with films like Hostel and The Green Inferno, there is no question that Roth knows how to make an extremely graphic and gross film, and he does exactly that with Ice Cream Man. The practical prosthetics and make-up effects to bring to life the carnage are exceptional, delivering countless squirm worthy moments as Roth’s twisted imagination dreams up brutally violent and disturbing kill sequences performed by homicidal children using playground equipment and classroom supplies. It’s evidently clear that not only is each kill carefully orchestrated to ensure that they all feel real and not generated through computer generated imagery, but they are done so with continuous shots where possible to ensure that the audience is not spared from the gruesome and diabolical activities of the possessed children for a second. With the candy coloured production and costume design and bright colour grading of the film, it all takes on a gleefully demented tone that effortlessly achieves the style that Roth is striving for with this film, creating one sweet nightmare of a horror film.

It’s a great shame because while the below the line elements of Ice Cream Man are strong, all this commendable work is undone by one of the most abysmal screenplays of the year. Calling back to the ridiculousness of B-grade horror films of the 1980s, Roth’s story is simple and fits into a tight runtime of eighty-six minutes including credits, but there is not enough story to sustain even that short of a film. It starts off with a harmless setup as the titular ice cream man sells almost the entire small town's population of children ice cream as he uncomfortably watches the small children knowing that they will soon be turned into mindless killers for him, an entertaining dinner scene featuring Eli Roth and Karen Cliche as Jared’s parents which delivers some good laughter, and childhood summer antics that tries to create a nostalgic feeling. When the carnage begins, it feels reminiscent of Weapons in the way in which the attacks are triggered, while the situation that our main character finds himself in calls back to 2014’s Cooties. However, the second act set at Jared’s school as the possessed children try to force feed Jared and his friends ice cream and savagely dismember and execute any adult who comes across their path drags on far too long. The horrifying tension runs thin as this act becomes far too repetitive with endless attacks and no true narrative development, cramming any story progression into a rushed final act. The narrative outlines of a decent story are there, but it's so poorly developed and infused with horrible dialogue that drains any ounce of entertainment Ice Cream Man had going for it. But the biggest offense of the screenplay is that it makes no use of the ice cream man, giving him no defining moments to make him a memorable horror villain that this type of horror film needs to succeed. You have to give credit to Roth for where the story ends, as it's a grim note that you will not find in a studio produced horror film, but with all the uninspired storytelling that comes before it, the daring ending falls on deaf ears.

However, what is more concerning is the jokes that Roth and Belson have written throughout the film, touching on teenage bulimia and a rather disgusting joke about a child’s intelligence and autism. Not only are both jokes absolutely revolting and incredibly unfunny, but in 2026, they are absolutely unacceptable and seriously calls into question the decency of the individuals who wrote them and those who allowed them to remain in the film’s final cut. It’s too bad as the young actors cast in the film are good, working wonders with one of the year’s worst scripts to inject some sort of life into this film and carry it from start to finish, but not even their valiant efforts can prevent Ice Cream Man from being anything other than one of the most disappointing films of the year.

Then, there is the AI controversy surrounding the film. Generative AI is a highly debated tool in filmmaking, one that this critic personally has challenges accepting when the same job can be done by a human artist and the budget is available. The potential is arguably viable for incredibly small independent films, but Ice Cream Man is not one such film. The use of generative AI is startling enough given the talents involved, but for Roth to claim that there was no AI was used in the film and then correcting after it is spotted in the film in the credits, now saying that “some AI was used” is the definition of poor filmmaking etiquette. Not only does he walk back his previous comments, but Roth does not properly clarify how AI was used in the making of Ice Cream Man, failing to properly detail what scenes in or what elements it was used. It only intensifies the sour taste this film will leave in viewers’ mouths as not only is it an objectively horrible film, but one that violates the sacred art of filmmaking for no good reason.

While a new horror film from Eli Roth may sound like a fun trip to the cinema, in the most twisted and gruesome way imaginable that only the sickest of horror fans will enjoy, not even those fans will be satisfied by Ice Cream Man. Eli Roth’s proclivity for grotesque set pieces with sickening effective practical effects, prosthetics and make-up design shine brightly that fuels the sickly sweet vision of terror in Ice Cream Man, it's all undone by egregious writing and concerning choices by Eli Roth in terms of the film’s humour and controversial usage of generative AI that renders what could have been one of the most cruelest horror films of the summer as absolute slop.