Ice Cream Man (2026)

Ice Cream Man is a clever example of how to use an almost absurdly pleasant setting to make horror feel wrong. The opening establishes a colorful, old-fashioned sense of American small-town life, with bright imagery and cheerful details that suggest a much gentler movie. Then Eli Roth begins pushing the story into violent territory, and that contrast becomes one of the film's defining features.

I really liked the production design. There's a nostalgic quality to the town, almost as though the world has been lifted from an idealized memory of mid-century America. The music and visual style help create that mood. It's a strong choice because it gives the audience a feeling of safety before the violence starts.

The gore arrives quickly and doesn't let up for a substantial stretch. Roth is obviously comfortable with elaborate practical-looking effects, and the movie gives horror fans plenty of opportunities to wince at what's on screen. I appreciate that the violence isn't hidden behind a series of rapid edits. Some of the effects are impressive precisely because the camera allows you to see how unpleasant the situation has become.

The film also has a twisted sense of humor. There's something inherently ridiculous about placing such extreme horror inside a world that appears so wholesome. I liked when the movie leaned into that contrast instead of trying to make the whole story relentlessly serious.

The premise isn't especially subtle, and I don't think it needs to be. Sometimes a horror film succeeds because it takes a simple concept and commits to a distinctive presentation. I was impressed by how the cheerful atmosphere remained part of the experience even as the violence escalated.

There are places where the story feels more interested in the next bloody set piece than in developing its characters. That can become repetitive, particularly for viewers who aren't excited by special effects. I would have liked a little more depth between some of the larger sequences.

Still, Ice Cream Man has a strong visual personality and plenty of nasty surprises. The mixture of Americana, dark comedy and graphic horror makes it an entertaining and unusually colorful entry from Roth.

Ice Cream Man was much more colorful and cheerful-looking than I expected from an Eli Roth horror movie. At the beginning it reminded me of an old-fashioned town where everybody seems happy and the kids are outside playing. I almost expected somebody to show up with a picnic basket. Then the blood started, and I remembered what kind of movie I was watching.

The contrast was actually pretty entertaining. Everything looks bright and wholesome, but awful things keep happening. I thought it was clever to use such a cheerful setting for a horror movie. It made the violent moments feel even more shocking because they didn't fit the world the movie had created.

And there was plenty of violence. The film gets gross very quickly, and there are scenes where I didn't want to look. Some of the effects were convincing enough that I wondered how the filmmakers made them. I know horror fans love seeing those details, but there are definitely things I'd rather not have in my head.

What helped was the sense of humor. The movie doesn't seem to be asking us to take everything completely seriously. Sometimes the situations are so over the top that you have to laugh, even while you're wondering what awful thing might happen next. I like that balance better than a movie that is dark and miserable from beginning to end.

I also enjoyed the nostalgic music and atmosphere. It gave the story a personality that made it stand out from other bloody slashers. I don't want every movie to look the same, and this one certainly didn't.

There were moments when I wished the characters had a little more to do between the scary scenes. I like having somebody to care about, and sometimes the film seemed more interested in showing another gross effect. But it kept moving, and I wasn't sitting there waiting for something to happen.

Ice Cream Man was a very strange combination of happy-looking scenery and horrible violence. I can't say I loved every gross moment, but I was entertained by the way it mixed those two things together.