At The Movies: This icy film gave me more than brain chill, it gave me soul chill
The plot is basically a tale of something wicked this way comes as a sinister ice cream van rolls into a small American town
Director Eli Roth trades in horror that could never be construed as subtle. From his debut feature ‘Hostel’ onwards, he’s been a purveyor of pulpy fiction with an emphasis on gore that many would describe as overkill.
Recently he has pivoted to both thrillers and family films to prove that he has more strings to his bow. Last time out, he returned to his bloody roots with ‘Thanksgiving’ which was an expansion of an idea he first distilled into a trailer for the Grindhouse project overseen by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.
The initial rainbow optics of this new film are as brashly bright and iconic as a vivid ice cream van. That fine line between wholesome and creepy is summed up by how an ice cream van jingle can go from utterly innocent to insidiously spooky with just a wonky warp of those couple of notes.
Story wise, this film strives for a time-honoured set up too. The plot is basically a tale of something wicked this way comes as a sinister ice cream van rolls into a small American town. The ice cream seller wears a fixed smile on his face and has no trouble selling his frozen wares to a mostly child clientele.
Profit does not seem to be the end game for this eerie entrepreneur. In all the transactions depicted onscreen, cash is not seen. (It remains unclear whether he is set up for contactless payments either!). Pushing his product is like feeding candy to babies but one lactose intolerant kid Jared is immune to the hard sell. Or easy sell in this case.
Just as well because this ice cream drives kids bananas. And I mean homicidally bananas. Soon every adult in town has their head on the chopping block as some seriously bloodthirsty children seek to kill every parent, teacher and authority figure that they can lay their hands on. Jared and a couple of similarly allergic friends know who is behind the spree of mayhem but the main question becomes, why has the ice cream man targeted this town?
Personally, on the writing side, I’d speculate that Roth may have been inspired by the rabid mob of kids that deliriously defined the climax of the superb ‘Weapons’ which was the true horror hit of last year. There’s nothing as sophisticated at play here but Roth at least gets brownie points in theory for his classic decision to keep the ice cream man totally silent. This decision would usually up the mystery and allure of the main villain but for me, this muting is a negative. I would have liked to hear from this character even if it were merely some soft-spoken spooky sales patter while he pushed his pops….
In terms of cast, Roth doesn’t even try to attach name actors to this project. To the extent that the best-known actor onscreen is Roth himself. Normally not recognising famous faces really aids immersion in the material and while that’s true here too, it also ramps up the notion that this is a real B-movie. (Or is it a Z-movie??) Still the mostly young cast give it their all even as the film sinks into true silliness.
Roth conjures the odd arresting image. And I do mean odd. But the climatic stretch of this film in a cemetery felt sloppy and unfocused as if the director had lost control of the action. And not in an interesting way. That said, the film does have some courage in its convictions by serving up a bloody bleak ending, which I found genuinely audacious in its’ own weird way.
However, it’s the level of gore that really needs to carry a warning here. This is a movie that doesn’t cut away from entrails being spilled and heads being stomped. It’s no surprise to hear that this is not my cup of tea at all. Of course, it’s over the top and maybe ardent horror fans will lap it up but this icy film gave me more than brain chill. It gave me soul chill too.
