Eli Roth's Ice Cream Man first reviews unleashed as horror gets early Rotten Tomatoes score revealed

It's been a great year for horror... but it looks like this one won't be getting added to the list of critical hits.

Ice Cream Man

The Horror Section

Published: Thursday, 6 August 2026 at 12:00 pm

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The review embargo has lifted on Eli Roth's latest horror film Ice Cream Man – and it looks like this might be one to avoid if the early critical response is anything to go by.

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At time of writing, the film – which stars Orphan Black's Ari Millen as the titular villain – currently sits on a score of just 31% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes from 59 reviews, indicating an overwhelmingly negative reception.

In our own Radio Times review of the film, we awarded it 2 stars, with critic Alan Jones writing that there was "gore galore but little more" in the "cheap, video nasty-informed shocker that mistakes endless bloodletting for entertainment."

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He added: "This mix of Children of the Damned, Weapons and 1970s Italian cannibal movies is a clunky cartoon chiller, advertised in the opening credits as being in "Scream–O-Vision" but, in reality, is flakier than that chocolate stick in your over-priced 99."

Meanwhile, The Guardian went even lower with a 1-star review calling it a "rushed retro horror made on the cheap" while IGN described it as "a movie that inflicts plenty of head trauma but ultimately reveals itself as having no real brains of its own."

The film also fared poorly with the big American trade magazines, with Variety's Owen Gleiberman writing that "Roth’s it’s-all-a-big-joke attitude here is a cop-out that’s beneath him, a way to avoid making a horror movie that truly engages us."

And Deadline's Peter Hammond also made the comparison to Weapons, claiming that "this underdeveloped concept looks like a bad attempted imitation of last summer’s far superior Zach Cregger directed smash hit Oscar winning Weapons."

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Still, the film has not been completely without positive write-ups, with the likes of Film Threat, Roger Ebert.com and The Hollywood Reporter all skewing more favourable.

Writing in the latter publication, Frank Scheck noted: "There have been plenty of horror movies involving murderous children over the years... But Roth doesn’t hide his desire to outdo them all with this effort that can only be described as sick and twisted. And I’m sure he’ll take that as a compliment."

The synopsis for Ice Cream Man reads: "An idyllic suburban town descends into madness when a mysterious ice cream man serves sweet treats that turn children into homicidal maniacs."

Ice Cream Man is released in UK cinemas on Friday 7 August.

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Authors

Black and white cut-out portrait headshot of Patrick Cremona, smiling against a lime green background.

Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer

Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.

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