I am a sucker for a good cult classic. Movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Re-Animator and Sleepaway Camp helped shape not only my taste in film but also the kinds of movies I would seek out for the rest of my life. They taught me to appreciate films that are strange, outrageous, messy and completely unafraid to follow their own twisted instincts. Some of my favorite moviegoing experiences have come from discovering the films that were too bizarre to become conventional hits but too memorable to disappear.
That said, the 1995 Ice Cream Man has never been one of my favorites. Even with the wonderfully unique performance of Clint Howard in the starring role, the movie has never resonated with me after multiple viewings over the years. The dialogue is cheesy, the kills are surprisingly lame, and the finale is easy to see coming from a mile away. I have returned to it several times over the years, hoping I might finally discover whatever earned it its cult following, but it has always left me cold.
Naturally, I became extremely interested when I heard that Eli Roth was bringing Ice Cream Man back to the screen in 2026. Roth’s gleefully excessive approach to horror seemed perfectly suited to a premise involving sinister frozen treats and gruesome murders. If anyone could take the potential buried inside the original and transform it into something bloodier, funnier and more memorable, it would be Eli Roth.
Ice Cream Man takes place in Bayleen Bay, a seemingly peaceful town that appears to be the perfect place to raise a family. That changes one summer day when a mysterious ice cream man (Ari Millen) arrives. Without speaking a word and wearing a deeply unsettling smile, he hands out free treats to nearly every child in town.
Lactose-intolerant Jared (Charlie Zeltzer), along with Mia (Kiori Mirza Waldman) and Tommy (Shiloh O’Reilly), are among the few who do not eat the ice cream. By the next day, the other children become Zombie-like sociopaths who begin murdering the town’s adults with extreme violence.
Jared, Mia and Tommy may be the town’s only hope of discovering what happened and stopping the ice cream man before it is too late.
One of the greatest strengths of Ice Cream Man is its use of practical effects. The kills are creative, graphic and frequently outrageous, with impressive prosthetic work that gives the violence a tangible quality. Rather than cutting away at crucial moments, Roth allows many of the gruesome set pieces to play out in all their blood-soaked glory. The extended massacre inside the school is the film’s effects showcase, turning ordinary classroom objects and playground equipment into instruments of destruction.
The results are disgusting, inventive and often darkly funny, giving horror fans plenty of memorable carnage to enjoy.
The children are equally effective once the ice cream takes control of them. Their blank expressions, eerie silence and ice cream-covered mouths create some of the film’s most unsettling images. What makes them especially creepy is how quickly they can shift from seemingly harmless children into cold and vicious killers. The adults naturally underestimate them, which allows even the youngest kids to catch their victims completely off guard.
Watching an entire classroom sit motionless and unresponsive is disturbing enough but seeing that silence erupt into extreme violence gives the movie a wonderfully sinister energy.
Unfortunately, that is where my praise for Ice Cream Man ends. The writing is easily the film’s biggest weakness. Most of the dialogue is painfully simplistic, with characters frequently saying exactly what they are thinking or explaining things the audience has already figured out. The adults are written as unbelievably clueless, while the children are given very little personality beyond a few familiar stereotypes. Even Jared, Mia and Tommy never receive enough development to make their situation feel as emotional or suspenseful as it should.
When the film finally begins explaining its mythology, the story becomes unnecessarily complicated without becoming any more interesting. The screenplay clearly spent far more time inventing gruesome deaths than creating characters or a story worth caring about.
Eli Roth also seems to borrow heavily from the Terrifier films when it comes to the movie’s violent imagery. Like Art the Clown, the Ice Cream Man is presented as a silent, smiling figure surrounded by increasingly elaborate displays of gore. Roth appears to be trying to turn him into a similarly recognizable horror villain, but the attempt never works. Art has a distinct personality despite rarely speaking, while the Ice Cream Man is given little to do beyond stare, smile and hand out poisoned treats.
No amount of blood or dismemberment can compensate for that lack of character, leaving the film with a villain who looks unsettling but never becomes truly memorable.
Although this Ice Cream Man is neither a reboot nor a remake of the 1995 film, the shared title makes comparisons inevitable. Eli Roth successfully addresses one of my biggest complaints about the original by delivering murders that are far more creative, graphic and memorable. In that respect, the 2026 film is an impressive improvement.
However, its Ice Cream Man is a far cry from Clint Howard’s iconic portrayal. Howard gave the original character a strange and unforgettable personality that helped the film earn its cult status. Ari Millen certainly looks creepy, but the screenplay gives him so little to work with that his version never develops an identity of its own.
I give Ice Cream Man three out of five stars.
Eli Roth delivers the creative kills, impressive practical effects and unsettling children that the premise promises, but weak writing and an underdeveloped villain keep the film from becoming anything more than a mildly entertaining gore fest. It improves upon the lame murders of the 1995 movie, yet Ari Millen’s silent smile cannot compete with the wonderfully strange personality Clint Howard brought to the role.
The original may not be one of my favorite cult classics, but people are still talking about it more than 30 years later. I doubt this Ice Cream Man will enjoy the same longevity. It serves up plenty of blood, but once the sugar rush fades, there is not much flavor left.