ICE CREAM MAN : Tuesday 11th August 2026.

I saw the R18+ Rated 'ICE CREAM MAN' this week, and this American slasher horror film is Co-Written, Co-Produced, Directed and starring Eli Roth, whose prior Directorial credits take in the likes of his debut with 'Cabin Fever' in 2002, then 'Hostel' in 2005, 'Hostel : Part II' in 2007, 'The Green Inferno' in 2013, 'Knock Knock' in 2015, 'Death Wish' in 2018, 'Thanksgiving' in 2023 and 'Borderlands' in 2024. The film was released Stateside last week too, and this is the first film in Eli Roth's founded horror label 'The Horror Section', has garnered generally negative critical reviews and has so far grossed US$4M from a production budget of US$5.5M.

The film opens up at a little league baseball game in the town of Bayleen Bay on a warm summer's day four days or so before the summer holiday break. Right on cue an ice cream truck pulls up close by as the game comes to an end, and many of the children rush over to the truck to avail themselves of the cooling sweet treats. The truck is seemingly owned and operated by a mysterious silent man. Jared Mayfair (Charlie Zeltzer) is lactose-intolerant and so avoids eating the treats and is unsettled by the Ice Cream Man, whom he sees following him as he cycles his way home. He also notices the children who have eaten the treats are in a trance like state, and watching old black and white cartoon videos depicting the cartoon mascot on the truck whose head swivels round as if watching him. 

Much later that night, the truck drives through the neighbourhood with its seemingly innocuous tune playing through the loudspeaker awakening the children who have previously that day eaten the ice creams. Possessed, they proceed to gruesomely murder their parents in all manner of gory ways. The next day, Jared and fellow classmates Tommy (Shiloh O'Reilly) and Mia (Kiori Mirza Waldman), who have also not eaten the treats, notice a strange behaviour in their fellow school mates. The truck arrives at the school, and the children suddenly begin killing their teachers and any other adults in town in the most violent ways possible, while force-feeding treats to any non-possessed children. 

Jared, Tommy, and Mia manage to evade their murderous classmates and barricade themselves in the school. In the meantime, Jared's teenage sister Lizzie (Sarah Abbott) wakes up in the morning having eaten the ice cream intended for Jared the day before and is partially paralysed and unable to move her arms. She is able to manoeuvre herself off her bed and make her way to her bathroom where she plunges her electric toothbrush down her throat to induce her to vomit up the treat. When Jared calls for help, Lizzie instructs him to meet her at the local church before some neighbourhood children attack the house. Lizzie's ex-boyfriend Chris (Dylan Hawco) saves her and both drive to the church. 

As Bayleen Bay descends into blood soaked and burning chaos, Jared, Tommy, and Mia escape from the school and seek refuge in the church's basement. There they discover a walk-in freezer filled with the Ice Cream Man's treats and find the local priest (Benjamin Byron Davis) hiding behind the stacked up boxes.

The priest explains that the Ice Cream Man is Jonathan Smiley (Ari Millen), a once kind-hearted man who visited Bayleen Bay decades ago and was unjustly blamed for hurting local children to cover up the actions of the town's predatory priests. Jared's grandfather, an influential lawyer at the time, ran the case against Jonathan, and the children were pressured to lie, which led to Jonathan's conviction. While in prison, Jonathan had been visited by a necromancer who promised him to take revenge on the town in exchange for his soul.

To stop Jonathan, the kids must kill the necromancer and the siren accompanying him in his unmarked grave, buried on the far reaches of the cemetery under an old tree. First they have to chop off the necromancer's head, and then remove its hood and have the head stare into the eyes of Jonathan, without looking at the head themselves. When Jonathan arrives at the freezer, the priest sacrifices himself to give the kids enough time to run. Jared, Tommy, and Mia reunite with Lizzie and Chris and convince them to drive to the cemetery to find the necromancer's grave. As they dig up the bodies, the children kill Chris before force-feeding treats to Mia and Tommy, so possessing them too. Cornered by Jonathan, Jared and Lizzie stab the bodies in the grave, and dismember the necromancers head. Lizzie hears a phone ringing under the garments of the siren, and removing its hood reveals to be her own mother Alison (Karen Cliche). Lizzie then calls out to Jared, who by now is holding up the head of the necromancer and has removed its hood too, revealing it to be his father Marty (Eli Roth). The priest is revealed to be the necromancer, having tricked them to help finish the job for Jonathan, for while Jared's grandfather was the convicting lawyer who helped put Jonathan in prison, his young son and future wife were two of the children who lied on the stand in the court room and were also instrumental in sending Jonathan away. 

While the guilt-ridden and heavily traumatised Jared and Lizzie are left surrounded by the violence and wreckage, Jonathan leaves the now-decimated Bayleen Bay in his ice cream truck with the possessed children trailing behind, his revenge complete as he goes to wreak terror on the unsuspecting populace of the next town.

For all the blood, gore, gruesome killings, viscera and murderous mayhem inflicted on unsuspecting adults by their seemingly walking dead children, this film is sure to please the die hard fans of this genre, and which Eli Roth is renowned for (think. 'Cabin Fever', 'Hostel 1 and 2' and 'The Green Inferno' in particular). Putting that aside however, this film is nothing more than a splatterfest without any real semblance of plot or storyline, one dimensional characters, poor dialogue, barely adequate performances, a completely uninspiring antagonist who from memory doesn't utter a single word of dialogue throughout the whole 86 minute runtime and a complete lack of any sense of suspense or tension or even the occasional jump scare. The practical effects are reasonably well executed here and they come thick and fast in the first hour or so in a relentless binge of chopped up bodies, decapitations, smashed in heads, and entrails being pulled from still living victims, amongst many other creative kills that Director Roth has a penchant for, but in the end it just becomes repetitive and tedious.

'Ice Cream Man' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 6th August 2026.

This years 74th Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) runs from Thursday 6th August through until Sunday 23rd August in the capital city of Melbourne, in the State of Victoria, Australia. MIFF is an independent not-for-profit organisation that has been continuously running since 1952, making it the premier film festival in Australia and one of the world’s oldest film festivals, alongside Venice (founded in 1932), Cannes (founded in 1939) and Berlin (founded in 1951). Presenting a curated global programme of innovative screen experiences and the world’s largest showcase of exceptional Australian filmmaking, MIFF is an accessible, iconic cultural event that provides transformative experiences for audiences and filmmakers alike. MIFF will continue to innovate and build on its decades of achievements to ensure that Melbourne retains its place as the cultural capital of Australia and that MIFF remains Australia’s largest and most significant film festival in terms of international profile, industry engagement, audience size, and the quality and breadth of both its festival and industry programmes . . . so reads the official website. 

This years Opening Night Gala film presentation is 'Wicker' from the USA and this romantic fantasy film is Written and Directed by Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, and stars Peter Dinklage, Richard E. Grant, Elizabeth Debicki, Nabhaan Rizwan, Marli Siu, Alexander Skarsgard and Olivia Colman. A fisherwoman lives on the fringes of a seaside village; she is unmarried, stinky, and constantly teased. One day, sick of her stuffy, narrow-minded neighbours, she orders a wicker husband for herself. Australian Premiere screening.

MIFF’s film competition, Bright Horizons, celebrates filmmakers on the ascent, featuring an extraordinary international line-up of first- and second-time filmmakers competing for one of the richest film prizes in the world.

There are ten films competing for the Bright Horizons Award. These are as given in brief below :-

* 'Big Girls Don't Cry' - from New Zealand, this drama film is Written and Directed by Paloma Schneideman in her debut feature. Australian Premiere.

* 'Blue Heron' - from Canada and Hungary, this drama film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Sophy Romvari. Australian Premiere.

* 'Elephants in the Fog' - from France, Germany, Brazil, Nepal and Norway, this drama film is Directed by Abinash Bikram Shah. Australian Premiere. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at this years Cannes Film Festival.

* 'The Friend's House Is Here' - from the USA and Iran, this drama film is Written, Produced and Directed by Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei, and Edited by Hossein Keshavarz. Australian Premiere. Winner of the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast at this years Sundance Film Festival.

* 'Goodbye, Cruel World' - from France, and this drama film is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Felix de Givry in his feature film debut. Australian Premiere.

* 'Josephine' - from the USA, this drama film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Beth de Araujo in her feature film making debut, and stars Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan. Australian Premiere. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in this years Sundance Film Festival US Dramatic Competition,

* 'La Gradiva' - from France and Italy, this drama film is Co-Written, Co-Photographed and Directed by Marine Atlan in her feature film Directorial debut. Australian Premiere. Winner of this years Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week Grand Prize.

* 'Sweet Milk Lake' - from Australia and this drama film is Written, Co-Produced, Directed and stars Harvey Zielinski in his feature debut. World Premiere. 

* 'Wicker' - from the USA and this historical fantasy drama comedy film is Written and Directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson. Refer above Opening Night Film presentation. 

* 'Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep' - from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Palestine and Qatar, this drama film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Rakan Mayasi in his feature Directorial debut. Australian Premiere.

For the descriptors of the above named films in official competition, plus the full low down on all of the other strands being showcased, and a whole lot of other good stuff, you can visit the official website at : http://www.miff.com.au

Turning the focus back to this weeks tranche of seven new movies coming to a big screen Odeon close to your home, we begin with a pair of American slasher horror offerings, the first of which is about a queer Director making a slasher film franchise sequel who becomes obsessed with casting the original film's 'final girl', leading both women into psychological and sexual chaos; and this is followed by a story set during an idyllic summer that turns into sheer terror as an ice cream man serves up sweet delights, with horrifying results. Then we have a British black comedy period piece where a gloriously unscrupulous social climber and his razor-sharp wife prepare to host a dinner party for a Duke and Duchess in 18th-century England. Next up is an American historical biographical war drama in which a young man faces war, betrayal and impossible choices that ultimately will forge a leader. Following on we have a Canadian and New Zealand Co-Production that sees a lost boy in search of heaven, three odd nuns on a mission, a car powered by God (and stolen money), all embarking on a road trip like no other. Then we turn to an Aussie comedy drama film about a celebrated composer facing death, his volatile working-class neighbour, and a sharp New York writer who together form an uneasy alliance over the course of one weekend in Far North Queensland; before closing out the week with the third instalment in this mildly successful franchise that sees the Troopers try to bring down a new drug ring, while Farva's wildly over-the-top engagement to the Senior Troopers sister spirals into chaos.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the seven latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA' (Rated MA15+) - is an American slasher horror film that is Written and Directed by Jane Schoenbrun, whose previous Directing outings are 'We're All Going to the World's Fair' in 2021 which they would follow up with 'I Saw the TV Glow' in 2021. This film had its World Premiere screening in mid-May as the opening film of the Un Certain Regard section at this years Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm. It is released in the US this week also.

After years of slapdash sequels and waning fandom, the long-running 'Camp Miasma' slasher franchise is handed over to an enthusiastic young queer Director Kris (Hannah Einbinder) for resurrection. But when she visits the original movie's star Billie Presley (Gillian Anderson), she becomes fixated on the prospect of casting the now-reclusive Actress who is shrouded in mystery. As the two women begin to work together, they fall into a blood-soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium. Also starring Jack Haven and Patris Fischler. 

'ICE CREAM MAN' (Rated R18+) - this American slasher horror film is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Eli Roth, whose prior Directorial credits take in the likes of his debut with 'Cabin Fever' in 2002, then 'Hostel' in 2005, 'Hostel : Part II' in 2007, 'The Green Inferno' in 2013, 'Knock Knock' in 2015, 'Death Wish' in 2018, 'Thanksgiving' in 2023 and 'Borderlands' in 2024. Here, an idyllic suburban town descends into madness when a mysterious ice cream man (Ari Millen) serves sweet treats that turn children into homicidal maniacs with horrifying results. The film is released Stateside this week too, and this is the first film in Eli Roth's founded horror label 'The Horror Section'. 

'SAVAGE HOUSE' (Rated CTC) - is a British black comedy period film Written, Co-Produced, Directed, Edited and scored by Peter Glanz in only his second feature film Directorial outing following 'The Longest Week' in 2014. Set in 18th-Century England, the film follows Sir Chauncey Savage (Richard E. Grant), a gloriously unscrupulous social climber propped up by debt and bravado. When invited to host the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire because a massive pox outbreak and the Jacobite uprising, Chauncey and his razor-sharp wife, Lady Savage (Claire Foy), launch a bid to impress. Their desperate attempts to climb the social ladder and mask the decay of their crumbling estate spiral into infidelity, duels, decadence and bloodshed, as their performance spins way out of control. Also starring Jack Farthing, Bel Powley and Kila Lord Cassidy. The film was released in the UK, Ireland and the USA in early June, has so far grossed US$464K and has generated largely positive critical press.

'YOUNG WASHINGTON' (Rated M) - this American historical war drama film is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jon Erwin who together with his brother Andrew Erwin helmed their debut feature film in 2011 with 'October Baby' and would go on to Direct 'Mom's Night Out' in 2014, 'Woodlawn' in 2015, 'I Can Only Imagine' in 2018 and 'American Underdog' in 2021 amongst others. Before he became the first President of the United States of America, he was a soldier fighting to survive. A single misstep thrusts young George Washington (William Franklyn-Miller) into the centre of a global conflict, testing his honour, loyalty, and courage. As alliances crumble and the frontier erupts into the French and Indian War of 1753-1755, he must confront not only his enemies but the man he's becoming. Also starring Ben Kingsley, Andy Serkis, Kelsey Grammer, Mary-Louise Parker, Joel Smallbone and Mia Rodgers. The film has garnered mixed critical reviews and has so far grossed US$41M from a production budget of US$20M, having been released Stateside in early July. A sequel is already in the works allegedly titled '1776' and tracing Washington's experiences during the American Revolution. 

'HOLY DAYS' (Rated PG) - is a Canadian and New Zealand Co-Produced comedy film Written and Directed by Nat Boltt in her feature film making debut, and is based on the book of the same name by Dame Joy Cowley. Accompanied by an unhappy young boy Brian Collins (Elijah Tamati), three unconventional nuns Sister Agnes (Judy Davis), Sister Luke (Miriam Margolyes) and Sister Mary Clare (Jacki Weaver) embark on a wild and chaotic road trip across New Zealand to retrieve the deeds to their convent. When an unexpected snowstorm derails their journey, they soon find themselves confronting loss, mortality and the transformative power of love, forgiveness and connection. The film had its World Premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in early February this year, and was released in New Zealand on 26th February, and the USA on 27th March, having so far grossed US$340K and has generated mixed or average critical reviews.

'STORM BIRD' (Rated MA15+) - this Australian comedy drama film is Co-Produced and Directed by James Ivor and Eryk Lenartowicz in their joint feature film making debut, and is Written, and stars James Ivor. Here, Richard Hollingsworth (Anthony Phelan), a once-revered composer now a reclusive nihilist, living out his final months in isolation. When Jack Sprawling (James Ivor), a tough but kind-hearted working-class neighbour facing jail time, saves him from a sudden heart attack, their lives unexpectedly intertwine. Together with Carla (Serena ven Sandalwood), a sharp New York author documenting Richard’s life, the three unlikely companions spend a transformative weekend in Far North Queensland confronting the past, unearthing personal truths, and forging unexpected bonds across social divides.

'SUPER TROOPERS 3' (Rated MA15+) - is an American comedy film Directed and starring Jay Chandrasekhar who also Directed the previous two offerings in this franchise in 2001 and 2018, with those two films grossing a combined US$55M off the back of total production budgets of US$16M. When Trooper Rodney 'Rod' Farva's (Kevin Heffernan) wildly over-the-top Indian engagement to Thorny's sister Sarita Makundan (Hannah Simone) spirals into chaos, the Super Troopers must navigate Senior Trooper Arcot 'Thorny' Ramathorn (Jay Chandrasekhar) schemes to break up the relationship, while trying to crack a pernicious new drug ring - all to save the day and maybe the wedding itself. Also starring Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Brian Cox, Erik Stolhanske, Nat Faxon and Marisa Coughlan. The film is released in the US this week too. 

With seven new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-