As many horror aficionados will tell you, if you’re looking to watch something truly disgusting, bloody, and gut-churning, all you have to do is pull up director Eli Roth’s filmography. Best known for the sadistic Hostel series, along with genre classics like Cabin Fever and Thanksgiving, Roth has never shied away from whipping up controversy with his theatrical use of gore and body horror. Critics and fans alike often cite his projects as ‘torture porn’, most of which prioritize shock value over storytelling.
Roth’s upcoming horror film Ice Cream Man doesn’t entirely depart from his established modus operandi. However, that doesn’t mean he won’t be serving up something different for fans of his work — as well as newcomers — to enjoy during the dog days of summer.
What is Ice Cream Man?
Who doesn’t love the jingle-jangle of an ice cream truck in summer? Parents roll their eyes, but fondly give their kids cash to go out and get themselves a fresh cone of creamy goodness, because what could possibly be bad about an ice cream truck?
Roth seeks to answer that question by taking a very different approach to the idea of “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream” in Ice Cream Man. This movie stars Ari Millen (Orphan Black) as the Ice Cream Man, a sweet-looking vendor who is, in fact, infecting the sweet children of an idyllic suburban town with cold treats that turn them into homicidal monsters. Millen is joined by Benjamin Byron Davis (Guardians of the Galaxy 3), Sarah Abbott (The Body), Charlie Zeltzer (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Karen Cliche (Mutant X).
Ice Cream Man is Roth’s first film to launch under The Horror Section Banner, a media company that Roth founded in March 2025. As shared on the company’s website, The Horror Section Banner describes itself as serving fans by “controlling a premium intellectual property library of unhinged films, television series, and games, in addition to a podcast and curating horror-centric experiences.”
In a previous interview with Polygon, Roth reveled in the intersection of horror and comedy and its effect on audiences, stating, “I want the audience cackling and hiding their eyes, going, ‘I can’t believe they’re doing this! How much farther is this going to go?!’”
A watch of the Ice Cream Man’s trailer makes it impossible to ignore how prominent the intersection between horror and comedy really is. The trailer is bloodier than a vampire’s picnic, with kids scooping up brains into cones and skipping with entrails as Snoop Dogg blasts in the background. It’s the unexpected, zany tone that’s permeated much of Roth’s work, such as Thanksgiving. If you’re a fan of that Netflix movie, you’ll no doubt be interested in Ice Cream Man.
Is the Ice Cream Man a sequel?
Roth’s Ice Cream Man is a standalone film and is unrelated to Paul Norman’s 1995 black-comedy slasher or Robert Moniot’s 2024 biographical short.
While it’s unclear what Roth’s ice cream man is cooking up in his ice cream to turn kids murderous, Norman’s take follows Clint Howard (Assault on Wall Street) as Gregory Tudor, a man who opens an ice cream truck that uses human remains as ingredients in its recipes.
When is the Ice Cream Man release date?
With a runtime of just 86 minutes (1 hour and 26 minutes), Ice Cream Man will be scooped and served to silver screens around the world when it releases internationally on August 7.