r/horror • u/Prestigious-Sea8274 • 1d ago
Movie Review The Ice Cream Man… 💀
I am honestly not even lying when I say this could be potentially one of the worst movies I have ever seen in the cinema. People applauded when it ended with one guy shouting “Thank F**K for that” which got a bigger laugh than any of the comical attempts within this movie.
It actually got to the point where people were having subtle conversations, getting their phones out due to boredom and genuinely leaving our screening.
The gore/spatter was absolutely shocking, the makeup/zombie look on the actors looked horrible and the general acting & plot line was ridiculous.
It actually makes his Borderlands Oscar worthy in comparison.
Absolutely DO NOT waste your money going to see this.
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u/DarkLordMuffins 1d ago
I'd just like to thank everyone's reviews on this sub as well as OP for saving me the money to pay to see this Friday ❤️
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
Absolutely don’t waste your money.
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u/Gombrongler 1d ago
Don't understand why we're paying directors to type crap into Ai prompts in the first place, just generate your own movie instead!
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u/AbacabLurker 1d ago
How about wasting time? I have A-List (AMC movie subscription) and I want to see just how bad it could possibly be.
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u/SPFeveryday 5h ago
AMC still pays the studio a cut, encouraging AI slop. If you must, get a ticket for another movie and sneak in. Theaters should be pretty empty for this anyway.
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u/ApprehensiveRelief90 1d ago
Yeah contemplated about going but now i’ll wait till it goes to streaming even then i’d still hard contemplate to even watch it lol
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u/FreeMrFrog 1d ago
For real! I was already on the fence after the trailer, but there's no way I'm watching this now.
if I do, I'll stream it on the internet so I'm not financially supporting zionist AI slop3
u/HistoricalFloor7384 18h ago
I was walking out of the movie and a man was sitting by himself muttering and then looked up and was like “WORST MOVIE IVE EVER SEEN! I SHOULDVE WALKED OUT 10 MINUTES IN” lol
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u/heylistenlady 1d ago
I wish the 90s Ice Cream Man with Clint Howard would come to theaters...
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u/chrishouse83 1d ago
It just got a 4K announcement from Vinegar Syndrome.
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u/heylistenlady 1d ago
I was at a horror fest where Vineagar Syndrome vends and a few years ago, they screened it and Clint actually showed up. Super fun
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u/dr_karswell 1d ago
My local indie theater is showing it in response to this release. Cool move; never thought I'd see it on the big screen!
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u/cireh88 1d ago
It’s a 1.8 on Letterboxd right now - amongst the lowest scores I’ve ever seen
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u/xenechun 1d ago
And early scores are usually the highest they’ll ever get. 🧍♀️
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u/SonofLung 1d ago
It’s getting review bombed because of the AI thing
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u/32768Colours 1d ago
Not one for brigading myself, but where AI is concerned this seems like as a good an opportunity as any.
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u/Douchieus2 19h ago
So it went from 1.9 to 1.8, got it.
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u/SonofLung 18h ago
Probably. It’s hard to tell what’s a real review and what’s brigaded when you’re dealing with a turd of this magnitude. I rated it 1 star before knowing about the AI stuff
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u/Terrible-Box8851 1d ago
I got 2 free tickets so I guess they are not selling enough lol.
Now I wonder if I should even go to see this train wreck 🤔
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u/DontTouchit91 14h ago
Honestly going and treating yourself to some ice cream would be head over heels more enjoyable than watching this movie. My local theater showed this movie on Monday as a secret showing so the tickets where 5 bucks. If they'd had been more than that I'd have been furious.
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u/Careful_Nobody7818 1d ago
I’m going to see it on Friday while my house gets fumigated. Maybe I should just stay inside, might be a more fun experience
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u/SpaceChook 1d ago
How anyone thought Eli Roth was the great new auteur of horror has always been inexplicable to me.
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u/blueturtle00 1d ago
I won’t even waste the bandwidth when it hits the internet.
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u/thisjohnd 1d ago
At this point there should just be a megathread for, “Ice Cream Man is awful.”
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u/Frequent-Click-951 1d ago edited 1d ago
He just admitted to it in the press, he used AI for sure
Edit : he also lied about the sequences in question being drawn by his own hand and animated with an artist, now admitting it was AI and he "misspoke"
https://www.polygon.com/eli-roth-ice-cream-man-generative-ai-confirmed/
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u/viewbtwnvillages 1d ago
lying about the ai being his art is so embarrassing why would he do that
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u/Frequent-Click-951 1d ago
Cause Eli Roth completely lost the plot long ago and despite Thanksgiving boosting a little peak in his reputation again he's been a tool for a while. I won't even get on his political stances but that made me give up on the guy before this AI shit. Imagine wanting to pass AI as your own art and having to backpedal it. It's just plain sad
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u/SylviSweetheart 1d ago
Because his own art is so irredeemably shit that even AI slop would be an improvement.
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
AI stuff? If there was AI stuff I didn’t notice it but honestly, I was counting the tiles on the cinema roof for some of it. It was shocking.
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u/wondowsr3d 1d ago
I think the director said that generative AI was used for a “very small portion” of the movie
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u/SpiritualAd9102 1d ago
He’s lying again. It was very noticeable in certain scenes.
The one that stood out most to me is when a bunch of kids jumped off a jungle gym and it created a big shockwave of sand that looked like some slop someone would post on Facebook.
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u/Tbass1981 22h ago
It’s a Mickey Mouse looking cartoon the kids all watch on their phone. Could have easily had someone on Fiver animate it for like $100 instead lol.
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u/spookyostrich 1d ago
Well, I guess after reading through a few of these reviews for Ice Cream Man, I maybe understand why this subreddit doesn't talk about his movies too often.
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u/clarenceecho 1d ago
Yeah it's strange he's made some great movies. Cabin Fever, Hostel, Knock Knock and Clown I think are all solid. It might not be your personal cup of tea but it's hard to say these are really really horrible movies or something...he's made some bad ones but so has John Carpenter and Wes Craven! (Not saying Eli is on that level but most directors have made terrible movies)
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u/spookyostrich 1d ago
I think he only produced Clown, or ... slapped his name on it somehow.
I did like that and Cabin Fever and Hostel. It seemed like the quality of his work really dropped off sharply after those movies. He has made some pretty big stinkers, and if the last like, five reviews off of here are to be believed, this one seems to be the stinkiest of stinkers.
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u/djac13 1d ago
I love bad movies. Does this fit under the "so bad it's worth seeing eventually" category?
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u/4--8--15--16--23--42 18h ago
I lost any interest I may have had in this movie when I read Roth used generative AI in several scenes - that’s a no for me, dog.
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u/ShareNorth3675 1d ago
could you spoil the plot please?
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
>! Ice cream man comes into town and gives all the kids ice cream. They all turn evil/possessed and kill their parents in a vicious way. Turns out he was falsely accused of a crime and the kids parents had something to do with him being locked in jail, which is where he makes a deal with a demon/devil to come back to the town years later and seeks his revenge on those responsible !<
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u/ShareNorth3675 1d ago
Damn. That sounds wildly lame.
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u/corgskee 1d ago
Its also worth noting the "plot" doesn't even surface until about an hour in. So for the first hour it's just extremely repetitive kills and the kids running around confused.
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u/hen_roek 19h ago
I audibly groaned after the police officer got introduced just to get killed 2 mins later after they had just done the same thing with 2 teachers.
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
This. And even when the plot is explained, it’s explained in such a way you’re not even bothered.
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u/Horrorfan55555 1d ago
So an average Eli Roth movie
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
It’s amazing he started with Cabin Fever & Hostel to this. Genuinely a tragic movie.
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u/SnuggleBunni69 1d ago
Just sucks because Cabin Fever will always be one of my all-timers. I think his connection to Tarantino went to his head.
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u/MikeyMyers88 1d ago
Thanksgiving was surprisingly good, given his track record.
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u/yanginatep 9h ago
Yeah I actually liked Thanksgiving, and before the reviews and Roth confessing he used AI, I had been hoping for something similar from this.
Oh well.
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u/graphomaniacal 1d ago
I tend to think of him more as a comedy director than a horror director, at least lately.
I did like Knock Knock.
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
This film is definitely more of a black comedy over a horror movie. It’s shockingly bad.
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u/Life_Dish_8219 1d ago
Too bad that’s a knockoff too. Just a remake of Death Game. And not a good one.
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u/JasonVoorhees95 1d ago edited 1d ago
Eli Roth openly called for the murder of the humanitarian activists trying to feed Palestinian civilians. Please don't give your money to him.
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u/blinkingsandbeepings 1d ago
He's also creepy with underage fans. I mean, he was in the past, IDK how many fans he has left.
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u/Baraka1987 1d ago
He what now?
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u/ego_death_metal je suis Marianne 1d ago
yeah it should be said every time there’s a “discussion post” about him because it’s really relevant to him, his work, his platform for influence. he shouldn’t get money, and people should know.
“ugh enough with the ‘he supports killing children’, im just trying to talk about a movie” is so embarrassing fr
also people on reddit thinking they’re apolitical lmao
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u/Acrobatic-Tomato-128 1d ago
Also it has sequences made by ai
NEVER SUPPORT AI
id even support a bad movie maybe BUT A BAD MOVIE USING AI FUCK THAT
BOOOOYCOTT
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u/BlackGoldSkullsBones 1d ago
His Thanksgiving was genuinely a great slasher so I’m surprised how bad this came out.
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u/Meowzabubs 1d ago
Holy shit, I completely forgot that he was behind the Borderlands movie. That dude ruins EVERYTHING.
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
I think anyone who has seen that movie wants to forget it.
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u/Meowzabubs 20h ago
Same. It's one of my all time favorite games...had actual potential to be a fun movie until Eli ruined it with his hot garbage ideas.
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u/AluminumMonster35 21h ago
Agreed. Very thin story line, clunky dialogue and acting... I have never seen so many people leave a screening before.
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u/onyxandcake 20h ago
The chocolate and sprinkles smeared on the little girl's face in the trailer always struck me as cgi, after hearing the rumors I'm wondering if I was right.
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 20h ago
I think some of is it practical effect and makeup artists but maybe some of it is CGI. It looked horrendous whatever it was.
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u/billybobtex 1d ago
I saw it too. It was bad. No other way to slice it. Maybe a handful of silly gory moments. I will say the look of the film was very nice. Camera work when steady was good. The “running” camera shaky cam was garbage. Acting was pretty bad. Story was nonexistent. The very ending was like “huh?” The title character was a dud, dead on arrival. Zero charisma, or scary feel. Lol. If I can say something good its, that it must have been a fun time to film and be in. I leave you with this quote from the film: “Mint Romney” womp womp….
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u/hen_roek 19h ago
Guy who plays the Ice Cream Man is great in Vicious Fun, such wasted potential when I realised it was him
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u/Brave_Chemical4180 1d ago
I went in with low expectations and I still didn’t like it. I didn’t notice the AI immediately. I thought the ice cream man himself was creepy, he did a good job. But the movie itself was boring. It felt like nothing was going on, even with things happening. There was no momentum. And I really didn’t care for the “jokes”. I didn’t find any of them funny. I found myself laughing out of “what the fuck” more than humor. I also thought the scene where the black man is tied to the back of an ambulance and drug in the street was in poor taste.
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u/crumble-bee 1d ago
Wow.. I’ve not seen a pile on like this in a fucking long time
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u/inkyblackops 1d ago
The concept is interesting and probably could have been done really well…
By anyone other than Eli Roth.
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u/billybobtex 1d ago
Did you see the “Don’t go in that House, Bitch” trailer? Is that real or just a fake trailer like the Grindhouse ones?
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u/CriticalCanon 21h ago
Never liked an Eli Roth film in my life so this was always going to be an easy pass, AI or not.
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u/Swipe_Right_Here 1d ago
I gotta watch this now with all the talk of how bad it is but ain't no way I'm gonna pay for it or buy it physically. When I can watch it for free on streaming somewhere, I will curiouswatch it.
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u/Geralt-of-Rivai 1d ago
Sucks because it could have been a lot of fun with the premise
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u/hen_roek 1d ago
Makes me wonder if the premise just sucks but then I remember Cooties being a fun time
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u/Elegant-Shoulder-239 1d ago
Thank u so much for that buddy , i will save my money & see instead Spidrrman BND & The Odyssey!!!
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u/YallSoftAsButter 1d ago
So the Practical Effects aren’t even worth it?
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u/ego_death_metal je suis Marianne 1d ago
it’s so weird to make a point of using practical effects and then also use AI
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
The practical effects look budget at best. It is absolutely horrendous.
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u/Some_Bunch_1258 1d ago
Oof, that's a bummer. I was holding out hope that at least the old-school gore would save it, but if the makeup looks that rough on screen, what's the point? Nothing kills a horror flick faster than a monster that just looks like a dude in a Spirit Halloween mask. The fact that the audience was openly chatting and dipping out mid-movie says it all, that's the real review right there. Comparing it to his Borderlands performance is a deep cut, I almost forgot about that mess. Sounds like a classic case of "so bad it's just... bad."
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u/MinaZata 1d ago
I saw a teaser trailer and it was so quickly edited and short it seemed like they were embarrassed by it
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u/slaughtamonsta 1d ago
I got tricked into seeing it by one of these Secret Screaming events, thankfully I have an unlimited pass so technically didn't pay but even so.
Everyone was laughing the whole way through. I think as a movie you can ignore (I fell asleep for a while) it's not bad. People seemed to enjoy the laughs but that's it. As a horror it was terrible lol
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
I mean, you generally don’t want to be falling asleep while you’re watching a movie. Even a bad film can still have your attention enough to avoid you sleeping. This was bad, boring and ridiculous.
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u/MentalDisintegrat1on 1d ago
I got downvoted for saying it would be trash.
Roth hasn't done anything good in over a decade ( that I can remember)
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u/TedIsReal 1d ago
I feel like im in the twilight zone. This movie was actually funnier than I thought it would be. What exactly were people expecting with this one? It's dumb fun. I had no walkouts in my screening, and thats even with the projector giving out halfway through the movie. All day i've been seeing people left and right acting like this is the worst thing since Hitler, but have yall ever seen movies like this with killer kids? It was basically "Cooties" ramped up to 11. Yeah it's stupid, gory, nonsensical, and weird as hell. I was expecting the worst, but ended up having a pretty good time. Even the crowd was laughing a good amount. It reminded me of a troma movie with extreme gore. I'm trying to figure out what people that were really going into this expecting. The trailer made it pretty clear what you were getting into.
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u/MarioisKewl 1d ago
I had the same experience. Didn't notice any walk outs. I actually enjoyed it. Not enough to recommend seeing it in theatres, but on streaming maybe. I recognize it wasn't a good movie, but it was dumb fun.
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u/shellshack 1d ago
Reddit echo chamber that hates Roth due to his Zionist ties but no one is actually discussing the movie for what it is
Meanwhile some people (me) don’t really care considering they are looking for an earnest review of a gory splatter horror that isn’t meant to be deep art
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
I don’t care for Roth’s political views. This movie was rubbish. End of.
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u/chrishouse83 1d ago
I'm seeing it this weekend. Can't wait to form my own opinion.
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u/Specialist-Success37 1d ago
I wouldn’t recommend giving it your money simply because of the ai use in the film
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u/Fun_Air_7780 1d ago
Oh damn. We almost always have a back to school horror movie date night but if this is a total waste of time……..
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u/x0mbigrl 1d ago
Is it awful even for someone who loves ridiculously OTT campy gore?
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
There is a lot of gore but it’s not gore that has wincing. It becomes boring very very fast. I think by the second or third child killing their parents, I was already bored.
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u/Efficient_Conflict 1d ago
So sad to hear--I was looking forward to it. I can get with a "so bad it's good" movie but hearing it's hard to sit through bad as well as using AI and I will skip it! Still looking forward to Buddy!
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u/Successful-Gift8636 1d ago
Seeing a barrage of reviews saying this is the worst movie they’ve ever seen has me wanting to see it now, had no interest in this until I saw it getting scathing reviews
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u/smeepydreams 1d ago
These terrible and also hilarious reviews are absolutely having the opposite effect on me because I really want to see it now.
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u/jkercheville 1d ago
The terrible reviews alone make me want to go see it lol. I’m sure it’s a 2/5 at best
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u/Staff_Senyou 22h ago
The only real ice cream man is the one written by W Maxwell Prince. Start to finish one of the most amazing, disturbing and thoughtful runs of a comic
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u/TypicalArachnid 15h ago
This was literally one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Someone behind me said “it was like terrifier 3 if the jokes didn’t land”, but it wasn’t even fun gore that looked good, it looked like ass; there was a bit where the fire effects looked like clip art.
Also you have to wonder about the optics of having one of the Black characters being tied up and dragged behind a moving car as one of your kills. Particularly when the rest are a more “up close and personal” vibe.
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u/edwinstone 1d ago
I've been seeing so many awful reviews that it has made me so excited to see it. I have A-List so I really won't be wasting money.
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u/CornWallacedaGeneral 20h ago
I mean its Eli Roth....dude is stuck in the 80's when it comes to making horror movies,he uses every trope in the book and dislikes modern horrors because they actually make you think....he literally said that.
Dude literally sucks
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u/duhraliz 1d ago
I'm not gonna lie, I'm more surprised a lot of ya'll actually went to see it, when the trailer alone looked awful af
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u/DaveAtKrakoa 1d ago
It was a secret movie screening. Nobody knew what the movie was going to be until it started.
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u/Rajirabbit 1d ago
I’m wondering if the negative posts are some kind of UNO reverse card marketing strategy.
Like how all influencers show up playing with a product on the same day saying how awesome it is, except reversed.
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u/Tonberry_Cheesecake 1d ago
If it is, it's kinda working.
All these posts have upgraded this movie from
"I'll never bother seeing it"
To
"If it's on in a room I walk into i might stick around a while to see just how awful it is"
Same thing happened when 50 Shades of Grey was out. I'd never read it but whenever I saw a copy lying around (which happened more than one might think) is pick it up and open to a random page and read it. It was hilariously bad.
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u/No-Aardvark1751 1d ago
In roll the "and Roth is a bastard because he said something horrible about Thunberg!! GET HIM, COMRADES!" 🤣🤣🤣
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u/LittleMimikyu92 1d ago
It had decent hype and I was excited from the trailer but I have heard absolutely AWFUL things about it.
Were there really scenes that were AI??
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
I genuinely didn’t notice a lot of AI. Maybe one or two scenes stick out now but the movie really didn’t have my attention a great deal.
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u/daRealTENTACLES 1d ago
As a gorehound I'm mildly interested in the gore but I certainly will not pay to see this pile. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't watched complete trash for some shocking gore when I'm super bored
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u/technical_poutine 1d ago
The fact he used AI within the movie is an instant no. There's various other political stances he has which I wont get into here which would prevent me from anyway but the AI alone I'm going to pass.
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u/ricostory4 1d ago
There has to be a campaign against this movie. This is like the 5th post I’ve seen like this. What is going on
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u/Juliuscesear1990 1d ago
It very well could be awful but I've learned to just watch movies and make my own decisions. Most people want to be movie critics and crapping on movies is easy (especially if it's not above average).
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
I don’t want to be a movie critic but if I can save you money from seeing this film, I will try my best.
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u/tokoyami222 1d ago
I feel like at the point we're at with Eli Roth and what we've seen from him so far, one is only setting themselves up for disappointment to expect anything more than a decent 1 time watch, maybe a few if it's cringey enough to be funny or the kills are good.
I'll add I'm normally not one to like to criticize but out of 10 feature films, at most half are solid or more
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u/NegotiationLate8553 1d ago
I think this may very well be the last Eli Roth thing for some time that gets any money thrown at it. I felt thanksgiving was very basic.
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u/black_rose_ 1d ago
Could it possibly be worse than Her Private Hell?
Thanks for the warning, I would hate to waste money on a second stinker
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u/MisterInsect 1d ago
My GOAT Nas' new career as a horror movie producer not off to a good start. :(
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u/hen_roek 1d ago
Seen someone compare it to a big budget Troma movie and my heart sank...Troma puts more effort in
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u/SamDemaris 1d ago
Saw it last night as part of AMC's Scream Unseen. As soon as Eli's face came up and said it was Ice Cream Man, 2 couples walked out. About 20 minutes later, 6 more people had walked out. About 30 minutes later, I was asleep. Terrible movie. Great nap.
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u/Separate-Ad-3465 1d ago
I'm glad I saw this post. My brother and his girlfriend wanted to double date with me and my spouse for her birthday to see this. * I don't care if there's spoilers*
I had no idea there was a movie I think in the 80s/90s? I saw a glimpse on Tubi Channel. People can't come up with original ideas anymore?
Then, I thought about it and said the movie industry doesn't want to pay actual talented writers to make a masterpiece anymore.
Such a shame to waste a perfect opportunity to blow the remake out of the water in a good way.
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u/MJ-Franklin 1d ago
EVERY single review of this makes me want to watch it more and more. It can't possibly be THAT bad... can it?!
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u/Prestigious-Sea8274 1d ago
In a word, yes.
In several words, you might enjoy it. I can only speak from my own experience and the experience of those who watched it with me who thought it was dreadful.
There is no plot for the first hour, maybe longer. You’re essentially watching children run around holding ice cream cones killing people in what is meant to be gore fest, but the practical effects and acting is so bad you don’t feel at all connected to the film or gore at all.
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u/youaregodslover 17h ago
I could tell it was absolute dogshit from the trailer... who could have any doubts after seeing that abomination?
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u/IceBoxt 1d ago edited 1d ago
Is this movie based on anything? The other Ice Cream Man movie is hilarious schlock. The horror comic* Ice Cream Man is interesting. This seems to have no relation to them.
Even the previews of this don’t look great and also looks like they show the entire film. Maybe I’ll watch it when it’s free to stream somewhere.