ICE CREAM MAN | Official Red Band Trailer | STUDIOCANAL<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having grown up with campy slashers of the 70’s and 80’s, there’s a self-indulging charm to bad dialogue and lukewarm acting that makes me more tolerable to them than most, and while Ice Cream Man represents more of the same for Eli Roth’s maniacal macabre that makes zero mistakes about its rating, it does conjure twistedly endearing results in the depths of his daring direction, particularly in the seamlessness of emulating the appropriate atmosphere to flesh out hilariousness in sporadic doses. Say what you will about Roth’s resume, but there’s a fearlessness and unapologetic exploitation to his direction that makes him a rarity among today’s politically correct filmmaking landscape, and with the passion of this project properly exuding itself in everything from the over-the-top and unflinching depiction towards brutality, as well as the abrasive personalities of his characters, there’s honestly more attainable laughter than I’ve had in an overwhelming majority of this year’s comedies, particularly in the cleverly disturbing ways he takes something typically precious and innocent when applied to childhood, and fleshes it out with dementedness that doubles down on the vulnerability factor of those youthful partakers. This can certainly be said for the idea of Ice Cream Men, where a stranger invades the sanctity of suburbia in selling sweet treats that are ingested trustfully to the expectations of parents, but beyond that those playground aspects that Roth utilizes so remarkably in deconstructing them into torturous methods, proving a lot of time and creative energy went into making sure that his audience never views anything from swing sets to teeter-totters in the same vein again. Aside from Roth’s eager resilience to make the film that he wants, the movie is also blessed by some worthwhile performances that help to override the limitations of lackadaisical characterization, such as those of Shiloh O’Reilly, Dylan Hawko, or especially Ari Millen, who each land an unmistakable impact on the engagement’s integrity. For O’Reilly and Hawko, it comes in the form of supporting turns that not only appraise limitless charisma to their respective constructs, but also comfortability in unloading the aforementioned campy material, in ways that never feel forced or stalling, helping to pick up the slack from some of the lagging leading turns that keep us at such a distance from investing empathetically in this distinguished conflict. As for Ari Millen, his turn here as the titular antagonist is nothing short of iconic, particularly his expressive creepiness with dialogue-free facial registries that certainly brought feelings of Art the Clown to mind, but in ways that feel considerably more autopiloted in the depths of his demented demeanor while interacting directly into the souls of the audience with some immersive camera work on full display. The strangely silent demeanor of Millen’s deposited actions are most endearing the less we know about the character, but even when the exposition dump devastates the third act climax, Millen’s mesmerizing work never feels stunted or subdued by elements out of his control with the storytelling, surmising a dangerously uncompromising adversary that transforms him completely into the confines of this character. On top of this, while the overall production and corresponding presentation leave slightly more to be desired in obvious budgetary limitations, the most noteworthy appeal in the collective bunch are those of the make-up and prosthetics work, which give the decaying features of the children’s appearances and their gruesome actions a stomach-turning influence that lingers a bit longer in Roth’s intended direction. When the kills are enacted practically, they’re undeniably at their best, even if the over-the-top captivity makes the lacerated limbs and condensed skulls a bit unrealistic humorously, and with an overwhelming majority of this ensemble pertaining to those infected youths, Roth never loses sight of distinguishing these designs from one another, allowing us to never lose sight in the visual conveyance of those under the influence of a greater power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While far from the absolute worst movie that I’ve seen this year, there’s still an abundance of plunging problems to Ice Cream Man that ultimately keeps it from finding a comfortable rhythm in a meager 81-minute runtime, beginning with a scatterbrained screenplay from Roth and co-writer Noah Belson, which stumbles on the storytelling’s most vital of aspects. As previously mentioned, the characterization here is abysmal, with so many meanspirited personalities and paper-thin backstory to keep us from firmly investing in a single one of them, but even in the sequencing of the structure, there’s a total lack of commitment in the established rules of this Ice Cream Man’s hypnotizing conflict that sees it drifting logically from one scene to the next, forcing the mind-numbing actions of these clumsy characters a constant convenience against antagonists who are not only half of the size of them, but also easy to evade when push comes to shove. It’s quite remarkable how long the script fails to address any meaningful answers that could help flesh out much-needed insight into the angling or motivation of its titular character, but when it finally does come, it materializes in the form of an overly-convoluted and long-winded exposition dump during the third act climax, that not only grinds the pacing of the movie to a screeching halt, but also brings with it this unwelcome seriousness in atmosphere that alienates itself from the compelling campiness that came before it. This comes as a result of some of the established backstory of the character, that certainly requires a massive suspension of disbelief in the constructs of the conflict, but beyond that the resiliency of audaciousness in intended direction that takes the story down some dramatically disastrous corridors that are unforeseen to this point, matching Psycho Killer beat for beat in a third act that flies off the rails just as fast as that predecessor. Aside from the screenplay, the film is also conflicted in its balance of C.G-heavy special effects that eviscerate the fun and frenzy of these daringly audacious sequences, featuring the most obvious brand of computer manufactured blood since the Resident Evil movies. This is not to say that the kills themselves ever feel believable, but when produced practically they flourish an animalistic artistry that makes it difficult to look away from them, but once the shift is made to elevate them with post-productive outlining, it garners this unappealingly distractive emphasis that doesn’t coincide seamlessly with Roth’s atmospherically campy direction, leaving little to chance in visuals that are already quite literally beaten over the head with so much barbaric brutality that it feels sanitizing as quickly as the movie’s opening act. Likewise, so much about the filmmaking renders this unappealing presentation that directly compromises the interpretation, with everything from shaking camera captivity, to aggressive editing, to especially saturated color grading comprising a finished product that is the worst kind of small scale. It means a lot that Roth is a filmmaker who rarely ever feels weighed down by a minimized budget, but there’s much about the cutting and pasting of what’s produced that makes the finished product feel like it eventually got away from him, and considering it hits the loudest during those quiet moments away from the devastation, it unloads one of the most visually unappealing films of Roth’s career, leaving much to be desired about not only what is captured but how it’s captured. Finally, while I was pleased to see that Ice Cream Man isn’t exactly a beat-for-beat remake or reimagining of the 1995 Clint Howard-starring film of the same name, I was unfortunately taken aback by the derivativity of the material, which makes it feel like as many as three other films, the creative heights of which this movie never quite reaches. Without spoiling the experience, I will say as cryptically as possible that Roth has conjoined Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Children of the Corn, and Weapons in his exploitative grasp, with unmistakable similarities to the most obvious scenes of those movies, and while imitation is certainly the sincerest form of flattery, it comes at the cost of Roth failing to find a soul of his own that expands the movie into creatively original waters, with little about its execution surmising any semblance of stirring surprise beyond the graphic nature of its cutthroat kills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
Ice Cream Man offers two scoops of gruesomely barbaric carnage candy for horror hound paying customers, but proves too much of a good thing can spoil an aggressive appetite, with little in the way of creativity or captivation to elevate this beyond another disgustingly meanspirited Eli Roth affair. While never a film that overstays its welcome, the tardiness of its eventually arriving exposition comes a bit late and too atmospherically compromising to its campy confection, leaving a cold and melted mess that slips through the fingers of Roth’s once firm grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 4.6 or D<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By Eli Roth Starring – Eli Roth, Ari Millen, Benjamin Byron Davis The Plot – An idyllic summer town descends into madness when an ice cream man (Millen) serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results. Rated R for brutal violence involving blood and gore, adult language, and sequences of peril ICE CREAM MAN | […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9797"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9799,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9797\/revisions\/9799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}