Ice Cream Man (dir. Eli Roth)

by Jack Martin | Aug 8, 2026

Certificate: 18

Running Time: 86 mins

UK Distributor: Studiocanal

UK Release Date: 7 August 2026

WHO’S IN ICE CREAM MAN?

Ari Millen, Charlie Zeltzer, Shiloh O’Reilly, Kiori Mirza Waldman, Sarah Abbott, Benjamin Byron Davis, Karen Cliche, Charlie Storey, Dylan Hawco, Eli Roth, Darrin Baker, Ryan Allen, Carina Battrick, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Lorenzo Antonucci

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Eli Roth (director, writer, producer), Noah Belson (writer), Kate Harrison Karman, Raj Brinder Singh and Christopher Woodrow (producers), Brandon Roberts (composer), Simon Shohet (cinematographer), Matt Lyon (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A mysterious van gives out sweet treats that cause the children to turn violent…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ICE CREAM MAN?

I know it’s popular nowadays to dunk on everything that Eli Roth attaches his name to, especially in light of his pretty horrific comments in support of Israel’s continuing genocide in Gaza, as well as for the denouncement and even the deaths of those brave enough to speak out against it. But even as someone who’s not a huge fan of his work anyway, I would still be inclined to put that aside in any criticisms of his movies, as I feel they need to stand on their own merits instead of being influenced by the filmmaker’s personal opinions (although don’t get me wrong, they certainly don’t help).

That said, Ice Cream Man – his latest film as a director and writer, sharing credit for the latter here with Noah Belson – blows chunks, and not the chocolate chip kind. It is a morally reprehensible piece of trash cinema that clearly wants to be the kind of shocking and over-the-top slasher that Lloyd Kaufman’s Troma Entertainment would vomit up in its spare time, but never does Roth earn the right to embrace that kind of silliness with a film that just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

The film takes place in the idyllic suburban community of Bayleen Bay, where the local kids – including our scrappy young protagonist Jared (Charlie Zeltzer) – are counting down the days until the summer holidays, as marked by the arrival of a mysterious ice cream vendor (Ari Millen) who happily hands out all sorts of sweet treats from his van. Quickly, though, it becomes apparent that the kids who consume the irresistible ice cream are transforming into zombified homicidal maniacs, slaughtering any and all adults unfortunate enough to cross their path, all at the apparent bequest of the ice cream man himself. Thanks to his lactose intolerance, Jared is one of the few remaining kids unaffected, and along with a few other survivors must find a way to stop the carnage before it gets too out of hand.

You can definitely pick up on what Roth is trying to do with this film, which is to make this outrageously gore-soaked B-movie throwback that would’ve occupied a low-rent grindhouse cinema back in the 70s or 80s, not unlike his previous horror Thanksgiving which, most famously, actually originated as a fake trailer for the 2007 Grindhouse double-feature. But Roth, with all of his juvenile filmmaking powers combined, completely misses the genuine sense of fun that often came with your typical retro exploitation flick, instead mixing his worst qualities – from nonsensical and often frustrating storytelling to central characters who are just straight-up douchebags – into a film that revels in overly nasty and excessively dumb violence. Mind you, it isn’t badly-done violence; the practical gore effects in this movie are quite impressive, especially in how they make the viewer feel appropriately queasy whenever someone’s head is bashed in or cut open with a switchblade (one that’s attached to an ice cream scoop, of course).

Even so, Ice Cream Man proves that there is such a thing as having too much of something that’s good. It’s not long before the violence starts to become repetitive, particularly during a gnarly school-set sequence that takes up a good chunk of the movie, but reaches a point where you begin to grow bored of the utter insanity unfolding in front of you, some of which includes young children brutally tear out the innards of their teachers and playing tag with dismembered hands. Roth also shoots it in a way where the action can be borderline incomprehensible, such as a chase sequence through a playground that is marred by some utterly unruly camerawork which could genuinely cause some motion sickness among its already uncomfortable audience. And none of that is even beginning to question the blatant use of generative AI that is incredibly easy to spot whenever it rears its ugly head.

But there is something particularly unpleasant about Ice Cream Man, to a greater degree than some of Roth’s more recent movies, where you feel that there is a certain agenda being promoted that makes everything you’re watching feel so much more sinister. This is a movie that makes light of real issues like eating disorders among children – one youthful character is able to escape the controlling power of the ice cream by simply throwing it up – and leans into obnoxious racial, gender and mentally challenged stereotypes for easy laughs, all while adding no real commentary to the supposed satire. By the end, it reaches a point where you could almost equate some of the imagery with certain ideologies belonging to particular key figures on the far right of the current political spectrum – such as, say, the leader of a Middle Eastern country who has easily influenced an entire generation to unleash utter hell on people who really don’t deserve such harsh retribution.

Yes, I know I said earlier that I wouldn’t factor in the filmmaker’s personal beliefs into my criticism of their work, but it’s hard to ignore the parallels when they’re as blatant as this. It’s bad enough that the film is nothing more than a brain-dead and utterly off-putting display of carnage that not even the people at Jagged Edge Productions would think much of, but for it to also have such a blatant disregard for morality and decency is more or less unforgivable. Yes, even if it does boast some pretty great practical effects.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Ice Cream Man is a morally reprehensible horror-comedy that already suffers from nonsensical plotting and obnoxious filmmaking, but its deeper parallels make it so much more distasteful to digest.