Ice Cream Man (2026) | Film Review

So, where exactly does generative AI belong in a film, or horror for that matter? In short… NOWHERE. There is absolutely no place for it in film or TV, and the quicker everyone in the industry comes to that conclusion the better. Anyway, I’ll get to that clusterfuck of a situation further into my review, so for now please read on.

There are some films that you watch and immediately understand exactly what they're trying to do. They aren't trying to reinvent horror, they aren't trying to be particularly clever, and they certainly aren't interested in taking themselves too seriously. They simply want to throw some blood, gore, ridiculous characters and questionable decisions at the screen and let you have a good time.

Ice Cream Man is very much one of those films.

I'll be honest, I enjoyed this. Is it a great film? Absolutely not. Is it a particularly well-written film? Again, no. Is it Roth’s best work thus far? Definitely not! But is it a fun, ridiculous and occasionally gloriously messed-up little slice of B-horror that feels like it has been dragged kicking and screaming out of the 1980s?

Yes!  And sometimes that's enough.

Directed and co-written by Eli Roth, Ice Cream Man follows an idyllic suburban town that begins descending into madness after a mysterious ice cream man starts serving children some rather sinister frozen treats. Ari Millen takes on the titular role, with the film surrounding him with a young cast who find themselves caught up in the increasingly bloody chaos.

And honestly, the premise alone tells you pretty much everything you need to know. This isn't trying to be Hereditary. It isn't trying to be some deep, psychological examination of childhood trauma. It is an evil ice cream man turning kids into homicidal little bastards. Embrace that and you'll probably have a much better time.

One of the things I enjoyed most about Ice Cream Man is just how much it echoes the spirit of those old-school 80s B-horror movies. There's a certain charm to watching a film that understands exactly what it is and simply leans into it.

And then there's the gore (of course there is). After all, this is an Eli Roth film, so you already walk into this with certain expectations when it comes to blood, guts and increasingly inventive ways for people to have a really bad day. Thankfully, Roth delivers. There are some fantastic kills throughout the film, with plenty of blood, practical-looking effects and gloriously nasty moments for the gorehounds to sink their teeth into. The film isn't afraid to get messy, and some of the effects work is genuinely excellent.

There are moments where you can almost hear the filmmakers saying, "Right, how fucked up can we make this?" And I'm absolutely here for it. Highlights were definitely the “brain scoop” & microscope deaths. The violence and gore is probably where Ice Cream Man is at its strongest. It's energetic, excessive and often deliberately ridiculous, which fits the overall tone perfectly. However, Roth missed a chance to pay homage to an incredible 1992 film from Peter Jackson by letting Chris loose with his entrepreneurial lawnmower. I'm not going to get into spoilers here, but anyone familiar with Braindead / Dead Alive will know exactly what I'm talking about. That could have been glorious!

The story itself is enjoyable enough, although me and Mike did call some of the twists. They were far from difficult, but it didn’t really bother us. Even when we knew where certain things were heading, I was still having fun watching the film get there. And that's probably the biggest compliment I can give it. This film knows what it is, and rather than trying to convince you otherwise, it embraces it. That alone makes for a pretty entertaining hour and a half.

You can definitely see the influence of other films creeping in, particularly when it comes to the whole "evil Pied Piper" approach of someone manipulating children and turning them into something far more sinister. There are also some obvious comparisons floating around with Weapons. However, saying this is simply a crappier copy of Weapons would actually be doing both films a disservice. I wasn't exactly the biggest fan of Weapons, but I could certainly see where some of the comparisons were coming from. Ice Cream Man takes a similar basic idea of children being manipulated by an outside force and runs with it in a completely different, much more cartoonishly grotesque direction. Weapons took the more serious approach.

Unfortunately, not everything works. My biggest gripe with the film (aside from the AI) is just how idiotic the majority of the adults are. Now, obviously, horror characters aren't exactly renowned for making sensible decisions. If they were, we'd have a lot fewer horror films. But Ice Cream Man takes this ideocracy to another level. There are moments where I found myself staring at the screen thinking, "Seriously? Nobody thinks this is slightly suspicious?"

The complete lack of common sense from some of the adults became increasingly frustrating, and while I'm perfectly happy to suspend disbelief for an evil ice cream man murdering children, watching grown adults repeatedly make decisions that even a lobotomised panda would question occasionally pulled me out of the film. And then there's the ice cream itself.

I'm not entirely sure what Eli Roth has done to me, but I genuinely don't think I'll ever look at an ice cream cone the same way again. Watching the kids in this film attempt to eat the stuff without covering themselves in it was disgusting. I genuinely found myself thinking, "Jesus, use a fucking spoon and a napkin." My fat ass didn't even know a film could put me off ice cream, so that’s new. Where was this film before I got diabetes dammit?!

Ice Cream Man (2026) | Film Review

The dialogue is another weak point. There's some genuinely poor writing scattered throughout the film, and while the cast and supporting cast are mostly pretty good, there are definitely a few ropey moments where the humour, performances and dialogue don't quite land.

Still, there's enough jokes and humourous moments throughout as well as personality in the cast to keep things moving, and Ari Millen works surprisingly well as the Ice Cream Man. Despite looking a tad, um, noncey… he delivers a genuinely creepy and unsettling performance. There's something wonderfully creepy about the character's presence, particularly when the film allows him to simply exist in the background and lets the situation around him become increasingly messed up.

But there is one issue here that I can't simply brush aside. And that's the use of generative AI. I'll be completely honest: even though the amount used in the film is tiny, I found it to be an incredibly unwelcome distraction. And to make matters even more frustrating- the film didn't need it. It adds nothing meaningful to the characters, the narrative or the film as a whole. There are absolutely ways the sequences could have been achieved without generative AI, and considering this is the first film released under Roth's newly established The Horror Section, it's an especially unfortunate decision.

What made the situation considerably worse was the initial confusion surrounding Roth's comments about the animation and the subsequent confirmation that AI had been used in a small portion of a few scenes. People are pissed, and rightly so.

Look, I'm a massive fan of Eli Roth. I've defended plenty of his films when other people have absolutely hated them. But his decision to use generative AI? I can't defend it in any capacity. Not because it ruins the entire film. It doesn't. Not because the AI makes the movie unwatchable. It doesn't. But because it was completely unnecessary and unbelievably lazy. If you couldn't achieve something due to budget, time, resources or whatever other reason, just hire a fucking animator! Problem solved.

For me, that's the biggest disappointment here, particularly because the film itself feels like such a love letter to the kind of handmade, practical, ridiculous horror that many of us grew up watching. The irony of embracing that old-school B-movie spirit while incorporating generative AI into the production is hard to ignore. And considering Ice Cream Man is effectively the first big statement from The Horror Section, I really hope this isn't something that carries forward into future productions. Just don't do it again, Eli. PLEASE.

Putting that bullshit aside, I still had fun with Ice Cream Man. And that's ultimately what I think has been lost amongst the sheer amount of shit currently being thrown at this film. Is it flawed? Absolutely. The dialogue is often poor, some of the characters make unbelievably stupid decisions, the story isn't particularly groundbreaking and there are certainly moments where the performances wobble. But it’s fun. Feels like the kind of film that would have sat quite happily on a video store shelf next to a bunch of wonderfully shitty (yet glorious) 80s and early 90s horror films.

The reaction to Ice Cream Man has been pretty brutal, and while everyone is entitled to their opinion, I don't think this film deserves quite the level of hatred it's currently receiving. And here's the thing that has been bothering me about a lot of the social media reaction. A lot of the criticism is exactly the same. I find myself rolling my eyes at the same talking points- AI outrage, "worst film I've ever seen" comments, the same recycled screenshots and opinions. Which eventually left me wondering...

How many people actually hated this film, and how many are simply jumping on the bandwagon because outrage gets clicks?

I'm not saying people aren't allowed to dislike it. Of course they are. Maybe you'll hate it as much as I hated In a Violent Nature (honestly to hell with that film), I mean that's entirely possible. But I'd much rather people actually watch the damn thing and make up their own minds instead of letting the current social media dogpile decide for them. And if you're that bothered, just don't watch it. Stick that cult classic 90s slasher with Clint Howard on instead. I'll be honest it is the better out of the two anyway.

Despite all the controversy, Ice Cream Man is a surprisingly entertaining piece of B-horror. It's far from perfect… but I had fun. Sometimes that's exactly what I want from a horror.

Ice Cream Man is out now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjtVXWa3tWI