Here comes Eli Roth to save cinema. Roth, a director best known for his contributions to the torture-porn genre, is currently on a generational run with “Borderlands,” “Ice Cream Man,” and his upcoming Snoop Dogg-starring “Don’t Go In That House, Bitch.”
Here’s a filmmaker whose name should come with a trigger warning anytime it’s mentioned on Twitter. If you remember, Roth, responding to the detention of Greta Thunberg by the Israeli military after she attempted to reach Gaza by boat, wrote that “she needs to be eaten by cannibals.”
Regardless, “Ice Cream Man” is here, and the trailer goes incredibly hard. I’m surprised YouTube didn’t make me confirm I was 18 or older before viewing what Roth describes as his “most terrifying and insane film to date.” There’s plenty of gore on display.
“‘Ice Cream Man’ follows an idyllic summer town descending into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results,” reads the official logline. The film stars Ari Millen (“Orphan Black”) as the titular character, alongside Roth, Benjamin Byron Davis, Karen Cliche, Dylan Hawco, Sarah Abbott, Shiloh O’Reilly, Kiori Mirza Waldman, Charlie Zeltzer, and Charlie Storey. Snoop Dogg is handling the soundtrack.
Turns out the ice cream isn’t just loaded with sugar—it apparently sends the local kids completely off the rails. The trailer, quite gleefully, might I add, escalates from childhood innocence to absolute mayhem, with children hacking off adult limbs, stitching severed heads together, and even scooping the brains out of a man who’s still very much alive. Elevated horror, this is not.
“Ice Cream Man” was recently dated for an August 7, 2026 release across more than 2,000 North American screens. The film is actually the second release under Roth’s The Horror Section banner, following the company’s launch last year.
Alongside “Ice Cream Man” and the Snoop Dogg project, Roth is also set to release a sequel to “Thanksgiving” — which, oddly enough, holds the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of his career. Personally, I’ve always favored 2002’s “Cabin Fever,” which I consider his strongest work. Even “Hostel” and “Hostel II” edge it out in my book.
