The Extreme, R-Rated Slasher That Messed Up By Trying To Be A Kid’s Movie

By Robert Scucci
| Published 35 seconds ago

Early 90s slashers are so unhinged that I can’t help but love them. My personal favorite is 1992’s Dr. Giggles because of how committed Larry Drake was to the titular role. Every pre-kill exchange is a cheeky one-liner with some kind of surgical wordplay baked in. It’s the kind of slasher designed to be ridiculous, and you’re not supposed to take it seriously in any capacity. You show up for the body count, the humor, the clever kills, and hope you don’t end up too braindead by the time the credits roll.

1995’s Ice Cream Man follows very similar beats to Dr. Giggles, but makes one fatal mistake: it plays like a young adult movie despite its R rating. Here, we have a killer ice cream man portrayed by Clint Howard, and he carries himself a lot like Dr. Giggles. He’s not all there mentally, he has strange flashbacks tied to the troubled past that led to his present-day rampage, and he does it all while driving around in his ice cream truck abducting children.

The problem is that Dr. Giggles plays like a teen scream that adults can also enjoy. Every protagonist in Ice Cream Man is a child, which means you’re expected to root for them like you would in a kids movie. See the problem? It’s fun watching irresponsible teenagers mess with dark forces and pay the consequences. But when it’s only kids who don’t know better, the humor doesn’t land the same way.

It Starts With A Dog Murder And Gets Worse

Ice Cream Man wastes no time setting up its conflict. We’re introduced to Gregory Tudor (Clint Howard), the local ice cream man. Before handing out treats to neighborhood kids, he was institutionalized at the Wishing Well Sanatorium, where he was subjected to cruel medical experiments. These are vaguely explained at best, but from what I could gather, he had green goo injected into his brain and was fed ice cream to keep him compliant.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the first murder in Ice Cream Man: his landlord’s dog. He really goes for it here, and it immediately sets the tone. Gregory drives around, and if he has no qualms about killing a dog, then kids should be just as easy. Or so he thinks.

When Gregory abducts Roger (Zachary Benjamin) and Small Paul (Mikey LeBeau), it’s up to Johnny Spodak (Justin Isfeld), Heather Langley (Anndi McAfee), and Tuna Cassera (JoJo Adams), who already suspect their creepy ice cream man is behind the disappearances, to put a stop to him.

Outside of Ice Cream Man’s basic plot, there are a couple things you should know. Gregory makes his own ice cream using body parts from his victims, and his truck doubles as a rolling torture chamber. This is a movie that, as far as I can tell, was meant to appeal to kids.

Is It A Kid’s Movie?

The real trouble I have is figuring out who Ice Cream Man is for. I grew up watching stuff like this all the time, so I’m not generally offended by kids sneaking ridiculous slashers behind their parents’ backs. That’s not the issue. I just don’t understand how this movie was ever supposed to reach its intended audience. It’s rated R and packed with over-the-top gore. It’s perfect for sneaking a watch, but no parent in their right mind is seeking this out for their kids.

What’s even more perplexing is that all the young adult beats are there. The adults are incompetent, and it’s up to the kids to take matters into their own hands. You’re supposed to root for them, but they have no charisma and just go through the motions. They even hop on their bikes to do their sleuthing, and I found myself chuckling while humming the Stranger Things theme every time.

I’m not sure if this was intentional or just a byproduct of the premise and production, but most of Ice Cream Man’s humor comes from how emotionally detached everyone feels. They’re just flatly reading their lines. If that was deliberate, it works. I laughed at the rising body count while the cops casually buy ice cream from the guy they’re pretty sure is responsible for the murders.

Even Gregory, running around with heads on a stick, delivers his lines like he’s reading off a cue card. The whole experience is surreal, and definitely something I’d throw on again around Halloween for the fun of it. When my kids are old enough for slashers, I’ll make them endure it, but only as a primer for the far superior Dr. Giggles.

Ice Cream Man is currently streaming for free on Tubi.