Killing children and making children kill is wrong. But that attitude makes for a boring movie. Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man goes literally headfirst into an R-rated grotesque horror comedy where children are the monsters. Grab a cookie and let’s crunch.
One hot summer day, a vintage ice cream truck rolls into the sleepy town of Bayleen Bay and blasts an annoying jingle to summon all the children. Behind the wheel is the Ice Cream Man (Ari Millen), a friendly-looking vendor with a little mustache and a smile. He never speaks, and he gives his ice cream away for free. Perched on top of the truck is Merle, a waving soft-serve cone mascot with that hypnotic tune playing from his mouth. Soon, all the children in town are eating cone after cone of ice cream, their eyes glazing over as if waiting for a signal to trigger the next phase of the Ice Cream Man’s plan. Every kid who eats the Ice Cream Man’s treats turns into a giggling little monster with one mission: kill every adult in town in the most brutal way possible. Phase one is to kill your parents.
Meanwhile, Jared (Charlie Zeltzer), a dorky kid who doesn’t like ice cream and pines after Mia (Kiori Mirza Waldman), the popular girl he can’t have, watches all of his friends and classmates ignore him and act like zombies. The Ice Cream Man then triggers phase two: kill all the teachers and first responders. The moment Jared and Mia realize what’s happening, they are trapped in their school and chased by zombie kids trying to get them to eat ice cream.
Jared immediately calls his teenage sister Lizzie (Sarah Abbott), who sampled only a tiny bite of the ice cream and ends up paralyzed on her bed, while her ex-boyfriend Chris (Dylan Hawco) keeps circling in his oversized truck, still trying to win her back. Then there’s Jared’s goofball and lactose-intolerant friend Tommy (Shiloh O’Reilly), who is there to help. Their only hope is to kill the Ice Cream Man by following a series of elaborate steps from The Priest (Benjamin Byron Davis), who has watched over Bayleen Bay for decades and knows the dark history behind the man in the truck.
Charlie Storey as “Piper” in the horror film, Ice Cream Man, from The Horror Section. Photo credit The Horror Section 2026.
“Every kid who eats the Ice Cream Man’s treats turns into a giggling little monster with one mission: kill every adult in town in the most brutal way possible.”
If Damien Leone’s Terrifier is ranked at a ten in gore and horror, Ice Cream Man is a five. It’s gory with a lot of guts, blood, and dismemberment, but all done with tongue firmly in cheek. For me, what makes Ice Cream Man worth it is the fact that no one should have ever made this film, but Eli Roth did, and we must honor that. Yes, children turning into cannibal zombies. They kill — as when cute little Piper (Charlie Storey) saws her mother’s head off. There is a surgical brain removal. The limits of how children kill know no end. Some of the kids don’t make it out so well either.
To Eli Roth’s credit, there are rules to the game. The kids only kill adults. They are controlled by the Ice Cream Man’s music, and there is a dark, sinister backstory that explains why he is doing what he’s doing. Now we’re asking three kids and a teen to kill him in the most grotesque way possible and in a particular order.
Let’s face it, we’re here for the gore. Eff the story. It is graphic but fun. This is most decidedly a horror comedy, and it stretches the imagination with the numerous ways a kid could kill and how a kid could survive this onslaught of adult deaths. Roth has certainly done worse, but he understands and embraces the comedic tone of Ice Cream Man and does not shy away from it.
Honestly, my favorite part is the ending. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I can’t say a thing, but damn, I didn’t expect it to end like this. There are winners and losers, and the winners win, and the losers lose. I’m sure more savvy horror aficionados will see the end coming, but I didn’t.
Ice Cream Man is depraved fun served exactly how it should be — cold, messy, and with zero apologies. Eli Roth made the movie only he would dare to make, and horror fans with a strong stomach should line up for a scoop.
"…no one should have ever made this film, but Eli Roth did…"
