Ice Cream Man

I first saw Ice Cream Man (1995) about ten years ago at the Vic Theater in Chicago. The theater often hosts musical groups, but they also do what's called a `Brew and View', showing films and serving alcohol. This particular night was a special one, as the Vic was hosting a mini Clint Howard film festival, showing three of his films including Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), Evilspeak (1981), and closed the night out with the world premiere of Ice Cream Man. It was a blast as Clint was there to present each of the films, and the audience was comprised of only fans (soon to be drunken fans). And to top it off, we all got little, plastic promotional ice cream scoopers.Directed by Paul Norman aka Norman Apstein, better known for `adult' features such as Edward Penishands, The Erotic Adventures of the Three Musketeers, and Intercourse with the Vampire, the film, which contains no nekkidness, stars that lovable mutant Clint Howard, younger brother to famous director Ron Howard, better known to most of us as Lil' Opie Cunningham. It's not unusual to see Clint appear in his older brothers films, like Splash, Cocoon, and Apollo 13, but don't think he relies on nepotism to get work as the bulk of his credits, films like Infested, Carnosaur, The Waterboy, to name a meager few, had little or no involvement from the elder Howard. Also appearing from the `where are they now' files (better known as the `what the hell happened to my career' files) is Sandahl Bergman (Conan the Barbarian), Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet, Black Christmas), David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London), Jan-Michael Vincent (Damnation Alley), David Warner (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country), ex-baseball great Steve Garvey, Doug Llewelyn (from the 80's TV show The People's Court...' When you get mad, don't take the law into your own hands ... take 'em to court!') and appearing from the `I never had a film career, but I'm related to someone famous' file is Lee Majors II, son of the Six Million Dollar Man himself.The story begins with the brutal drive-by slaying of an ice cream man, witnessed by a young boy, who is subsequently admitted to an asylum. After many years the boy, named Gregory, grows into a man (played by Howard), and returns to his neighborhood, taking up the mantle of ice cream man. He serves the regular treats, push-ups, bomb pops, etc., but his specialty is hard packed ice cream served on cones. What makes his ice cream so special? I'm not sure, but cleanliness isn't a factor as his truck (which bares the message on the back `watch out for children' with the `for' painted over) is littered with roaches, mice, worms, and parts of corpses...yep, the ice cream man is a bit on the psychotic side (the marshmallows in the rocky road are actually the whites of eyeballs...ewww). After the disappearance of a few locals, the neighborhood children begin to suspect, but it's the age old story of the adults not believing, being wrapped up in their own, sordid affairs. Will the children be able to convince everyone the ice cream man is a little `off'? Or will they end up hard pack `specialties'?As I said, I saw this at a Brew and View, and it was the third film in a triple feature, so we were all pretty soused by the time it came on, and after watching it last night, I discovered a heaping dose of alcohol made it whole lot better (take film with a six pack and call me in the morning). The story, acting, and dialog are all lousy, but the feel is that it is intentional, especially with Clint hamming it up terribly. The plot is pretty loosey goosey and predictable, which I wouldn't mind with a film like this, but it was just so darn slow at times. The script was exceptionally lame, but it did contain a number of in-jokes (watch for Doug Llewelyn's appearance as a grocery store manager...he ends his final scene with one of better lines) It was fun to see all the recognizable actors, but at the same time I felt a little sorry for a few of them. Olivia Hussey is still as hot as ever, and she seemed to have a promising career in the late 70's, but took a wrong turn somewhere. The same could be said of Jan-Michael Vincent (except maybe for the `hotness' part, but here he seemed like a real @ss, and from what I heard he is a real @ss, so maybe this is his comeuppance. The direction and editing veer slightly towards the shoddy, but that's no surprise. The film is listed as a horror, but that's only partly true. Horror is defined as `An intense, painful feeling of repugnance and fear'...the repugnance part is appropriate, as the movie is litter with gross out gags like the ice cream man manipulating two severed heads, mounted on ice cream scoops, using the lever to move their mouths and having them have conversations. There are no scary elements, just stupid, sometimes funny scenarios (funny if you have a slightly skewed, sick sense of humor). By the way, if it seems like there's a lot of gratuitous shots of Chuck Taylor's All Star sneakers, that's because Converse, the company that makes said shoes, provided some of the dough.The picture, presented in full screen format (I'm unsure of the original aspect ratio), looks quite good except, as another mentioned, there seems to have been a problem in the transfer in that every once in awhile a line does appear, sort of like a tracking glitch on a VHS tape...slightly annoying, indicating a possible loss in signal, but each occurrence is very short, less than a second, but still noticeable. The audio is acceptable in Dolby Digital 2.0. Not much in terms of special features except for some lame Ardustry trailers.Cookieman108

This is just a bad movie all the way around. The kids acted better than the adults and that's not saying much. You start out in B & W where an Ice Cream Truck Driver is murdered Mob style and a kid witnesses the murder and asks "Who is going to bring the Ice Cream?". Then you fast forward and you have an Ice Cream Man in a beat up Ice Cream Van with Bars on it and brings melted Ice Cream to the Children and tries to give them things like Pistachio that's made with cockroaches. This is supposed to be the kid in the beginning that is now and adult. Obviously the man has a few screws loose from the start and you wouldn't have your children near him to begin with. His supposed Land Lady also has a few screws loose and is supposedly his nurse. Even when he's covered in Blood the Ice Cream Man is such a good boy. Every actor including the kids are just over the top. Such as putting one of the kids in a Stuffed Fat Suit to make him appear fat and has a name like Tuna. Every Parent, Cop, Sibling and the list goes on is done to such an extreme it is just sad. How can one make up such a horrible dialog? After the first kid goes missing the police even stop the Ice Cream Man to speak to him and orders Ice Cream. The Ice Cream Man cuts up an eyeball and places it on top of the officer's Rocky Road Ice Cream and suddenly the eyeball is intact in the mans mouth. Not to mention the mice, roaches, guts and blood that's all around that seems to go unnoticed. Then you have the fact that he keeps putting people in his Freezer in his truck that stays frozen but there's never any ice cream in there. The Ice Cream he does give out is always melted and everywhere. What idiot kid, let alone adult, would even begin to eat Ice Cream when the dude hands you the Ice Cream with it all over his hands. One boy he takes a liking to and keeps him at his "Factory" and teaches him the trade of making dead people into his ice cream. So you have the Ice Cream King who teaches the Ice Cream Prince who teaches the kid, Small Paul completing the cycle all over again. You have stupid police, worse adults, a wannabe cop who has porn on a camera one of the children use, it's one of the boy's brother and everyone who is insane which is pretty much everyone in the movie including the stupid children. It's just a bad movie. Like you wouldn't notice dead bugs and body parts in your Ice Cream? There's so much more wrong with this movie but there's no pint in wasting anymore time on it.

If you like cheesy, campy, relatively unknown 90s horror you will really dig this film. It's about a deranged ice cream man who incorporates 'bad' children into his ice cream to serve to the good children. Local kids discover his secret and begin to spread the word, and the ice cream man takes aggressive action to prevent this. The film reminds me vaguely of the movie The Dentist that came out about the same time.The characters were great. The ice cream man himself was perfect for the role, and executed it very well. The sorta psychedelic-inspired flashbacks to his traumatic past were an nice addition, they provided a bit of insight into who he was as a character. The children were acceptable protagonists as well. I liked how there were additional characters (like the weird oblivious lady he lives with) thrown in. They added a little extra to the film without playing much of a role in the storyline. I also like how special effect usage was not required. The movie was gory, but it was a campy, rather than totally grotesque.All in all don't expect an Oscar-worthy cinema experience. However if you are looking for something fun, campy, and unlike many other horror movies that exist, this film delivers.

I’ve wanted a nice copy of this film for quite some time. Vinegar Syndrome has knocked this one out of the park! Nice little funny/creepy story featuring good ol’ Clint Howard. Nice. A+++

Good 80s horror movie. It was fun to watch. Just suspend reality and don’t over analyze anything. It was entertaining for a low budget film. The cops were the stupidest cops in the world along with the nurse. I wish there was a sequel to this movie.

The Ice Cream Man is everything a cult horror movie should be, and mostly that means it's almost too BAD for words!This is not a serious film although soooo many people seem to think it's intended to be.The main characters are wonderfully OTT and Clint Howard as Ice Cream Man Gregroy Tudor is the ultimate perfection in being an over the top, schizoid, psycho.If you like the bizarre cult humour of Brain Dead, Bad Taste, Blood Runners and the like then this is so much a necessary addition to your collection.Ignore the cover blurb, ignore "...this pulse chilling nightmare " it's nothing like that. It's a wonderfully kitsch performance that leaves me wondering what the out-takes must have been like. And watch out for the great use of a waffle iron!Treat yourself - it's a blinder of a Saturday night, pint of beer and pizza film. 5 stars!

If you're into low budget horror films or horror films that are funny, then you will like this.

Excellent movie!! A+++

Das Kind Gregory Tudor wird als Zeuge der Ermordung seines geliebten Eismannes Butch Brickle traumatisiert. In der Folge landet er im Wishing Well Sanatorium, das alle seine Patienten wieder glücklich machen will. Als Therapie bekommt Gregory Riesenspritzen ins Gehirn geschossen und wird dafür mit grossen Eisportionen belohnt. Später wird ihn seine Krankenschwester Nurse Wharton bei sich aufnehmen und für ihn sorgen.Etwa 30 Jahre später fährt Gregory mit seinem Eiswagen durch die Gegend, um Kinder glücklich zu machen. Bedingt durch die merkwürdigen Therapien der Anstalt jedoch, neigt der junge Mann zu Schizophrenien. Erst ermordet er den Hund von Nurse Wharton, dessen lebloser Körper in einer Walzmaschine zerkleinert wird. Dann entführt er die kleine Leseratte Small Paul, den 'Brillekieker'. Dem tut Gregory allerdings nichts, denn sie lieben beide die gleiche Eissorte. Paul wird in einem Verschlag im Eislager versteckt. Gregory bereitet seine Sorten mit Leichenteilen, Blut und Innereien verstorbener Entführungsopfer zu. Den beiden untersuchenden Detektivs Maldwyn und Gifford serviert er gar ein halbes Auge als Kirsche auf dem Eis, aber keinem fällt etwas auf. Erst die kluge Kinderbande Tuna, Johnny und Heather, die sich 'die Rocketeers' nennen, werden durch sein merkwürdiges Gebaren auf den Eismann aufmerksam. Sie kommen nach längerer Beobachtung zum Schluss, dass nur Gregory Tudor hinter den Kindsentführungen stecken kann.Nur die bornierten Erwachsenen lassen sich nicht so leicht von den Erkenntnissen der Kinder überzeugen. Da haben wir die ignorante Krankenschwester, die dominante Mutter, den stigmatisierten Pfarrer und seine besessene Gattin, den immergeilen Geschäftsmann, die nymphomanische Ehefrau, den kraftstrotzenden Bruder usw. Eine Hausdurchsuchung der Polizei in Gregorys Eislager verläuft genauso ergebnislos wie ein Besuch in der Psychoklinik, aus der die beiden Detektive schlussendlich nur mit Müh und Not den irren Patienten entkommen. Währenddessen unterhält Gregory die Rocketeers mit Kasperlespielen, wobei als Puppen die abgetrennten Köpfe zweier Polizisten dienen. Bevor der Eismann den dicken Tuna in seine Nusszerkleinerungsmaschine stecken kann, wird er von Small Paul abgelenkt und landet am Ende selbst in diesem Apparat. Am Schluss sieht man Small Paul in der Anstalt sitzen und unschuldig in die Kamera grinsen. Happy Days !ICE CREAM MAN (1995) wurde mit einem Budget von geschätzten 2 Mio. Dollars 'direct-to- video' gedreht. Er setzt sich aus bizarren Typen, merkwürdigem Humor, viel schlechtem Geschmack, neunmalklugen Kindern und etlichen Horrorelementen zusammen. Immerhin konnte ein Cast mit nicht unbedeutenden Namen verpflichtet werden, wie Olivia Hussey, David Naughton, Jan Michael Vincent, David Warner, Sandahl Bergman und Lee Majors II. Aber mein Hauptgrund für den Kauf der deutschen DVD ist natürlich der wunderbare Clint Howard (* 1959), in der Hauptrolle des Gregorys, der hier noch einmal sein herrlich irres Kindergesicht, seine wasserblauen Augen, sein onduliertes Hinterhaar (a la Biolek zu Beginn seiner Showkarriere), die breite Stirn und seine schräge Oberkauleiste zum Besten geben darf. Inzwischen ist er natürlich, wie wir alle, in die Jahre gekommen und sieht auf den jüngsten Aufnahmen aus wie der alte Karl Dall, nur ohne Schlupflid.Clint Howard war bereits als Kinderstar aktiv und hat seitdem eine sehr fruchtbare Karriere von Balok aus der Serie STAR TREK bis hin zum Drogenzüchter Tanner in C2 – KILLERINSEKT und darüber hinaus in Film und TV gehabt. Inzwischen ist er längst zur Legende geworden.Unvergessen die Szene aus C2 in der sich Jarvis Tanner in seiner eigenen Tierfalle gefangen hat und auf dem Boden liegend von der Decke seiner Scheune eine wabernde Zeckenbrut auf sein entsetztes Gesicht fällt. Wo immer bizarre Typen mit markantem Lächeln gesucht werden, steht Clint Howard zur Darstellung bereit.FAZIT : Für Liebhaber schlechten Geschmacks, gewürzt mit Ironie, beissendem Humor und recht guten Horroreffekten bestens geeignet. Anfangs noch vom überwiegenden Teil des Publikums abgelehnt ist ICE CREAM MAN inzwischen zum Geheimtipp herangereift.DVD : Bild und Tonqualität überraschend gut. Original-Format 4 : 3 (auf der DVD allerdings in 16 : 9 wiedergegeben), 83 Minuten Laufzeit, Ton DE/UK, keine UT, Boni Trailer und Diashow.TRIVIA : IMDB berichtet von 3 Minuten Kürzungen einiger Horrorszenen. Ich habe mir parallel die Blu Ray des Films aus Spanien kommen lassen, die zwar 86 Minuten läuft, inhaltlich aber mit der deutschen DVD übereinstimmt. Auch im Internet konnte ich keine andere Schnittfassung ausmachen.

Loved it...was what I expected. Clint Howard played Ice Cream Man role very well!! 🤟