An idyllic summer town descends into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results.
Chuck says:
In 1897, Oscar Metenier opened a small theater in Paris devoted to naturalist performances, plays or vignettes of a more realistic fashion dealing with those living on the margins of society. While unique in its approach, the organization’s director Max Maurey shifted its focus in an effort to turn a profit. The new order of the day was to alternate comedic skits and scenes with those of extreme horror. The theater, known as the Grand Guignol, became famous for its depictions of graphic, bloody violence. Renderings of decapitations, amputations, surgeries and instances of disfigurement were common, the reactions from the audience ranging from disgust to arousal. The establishment soon become a sensation, drawing crowds which sometimes included royalty, until the beginning of World War II, eventually closing its doors in 1962.
Eli Roth’s works would be right at home in the theater, his films a natural extension of the sensationalist fare seen there. Featuring simplistic stories and gratuitous violence, the director’s work is specialized for a unique audience, one that revels in witnessing acts of wanton cruelty and finds humor in the acts of sadism on display. His latest and most extreme work, Ice Cream Man, will please his legion of fans. Those with any sense of morality and taste will be horrified and rightfully so.
Using the Pied Piper legend as a starting point, the titular mobile vendor (Ari Millen) comes to a small California town, an agent of chaos who uses children as his minions. Handing out copious free samples, the minors who flock to get them are soon exhibiting strange behavior. Having turned into murderous zombies, they take to killing any adults who cross their paths. However, lactose intolerant Jared (Charlie Zeltzer), his sister Lizzie (Sarah Abbott) and a few others resist his sweet treats and try to escape.
Roth was once described by one of my colleagues as a triple threat- he can’t direct, he can’t write and he can’t act. All three of these deficiencies are on display here as the “auteur” casts himself as Jared and Lizzie’s father. The poster child for arrested development, this is a man suffering from perpetual adolescence.
Wallowing in gore, Roth takes great glee in creating scenes that show children sawing their mother’s head off with a hacksaw or beating their father to death with a baseball bat. Then there’s the inspired bit where a brother and sister kill their father by shoving a dental drill in his ear. Not to be outdone, another pair of siblings cut off their dad’s fingers while in a garbage disposal before setting him on fire. Unfortunately, the town’s teachers fare much worse, as one is beaten to death with bricks, while another has the top of his skull removed and brains taken out with an ice cream scoop.
I have no problem with violence in film if its purpose is to make a point regarding a character’s motivation, is used to comment on a particular social ill or serves as a metaphor. Roth has none of this in mind, his motivation to shock the initiated or meet the disturbing, low expectations of his fans. While I try to be conscious that what may be entertaining to others might not be my cup of tea, the disturbing nature of movies like this transcends that attempt at understanding. Man is a vile piece of work, catering to the most immature and callous among us. Roth is their pied piper, gleefully leading them from one grotesque scene to the next. You’d do well to keep your distance from any you see exiting the theater where this abomination is screening.
Zero Stars
