Sugar-fueled kids on a sugar rush slaughtering the residents of a small town: that’s the premise of Ice Cream Man, Eli Roth’s new, absolutely brutal gorefest. Trailer.
Best known for Hostel and Cabin Fever, Eli Roth endured one of the biggest box-office gaffes in recent memory with Borderlands, a chaotic production that pulled in roughly $33 million in theaters on a budget estimated at about $100 million or more. Fortunately for him, he bounced back to his core loves (or, more precisely, to his second loves after war crimes): gory, dumb, and mean-spirited horror.
Shot after the video game adaptation and inspired by the fake trailer shown in 2007 as part of the Grindhouse double feature, Thanksgiving recouped its modest $15 million budget with a total gross of $46.5 million—yes, more than Borderlands. He continues down that road with Ice Cream Man, which had a comparatively tame first trailer in April 2026. The second trailer dares to spill blood. A lot, a lot, a lot of blood. A bit too much for those hoping to keep a few surprises hidden.
Ice Cream Flavor Spoiler
Yes, you’re not dreaming: this red band trailer (the adults-only flavor) looks like a compilation of basically every murder in the film. It’s very handy if you’re not planning to see it—no need to slog through the expositional chatter, which apparently centers on an ice-cream man who turns kids into killing machines. Naturally, it’s hard to top Évanouis in the Hamelin Piper department, so why not add as many dismemberments to the recipe as possible.
At least, it’s clear. The only real argument this thing offers is pretty explicit, assuming there are two or three more axe blows tucked into the finished product. Roth also gives himself a real role this time. Not terribly surprising: the filmmaker has gotten in the habit of stepping in front of the camera, whether for a goofy cameo (he apparently plays Batman in the latest season of Euphoria, apparently) or for a stocky, brutish supporting part (the infamous Sergeant Donny Donowitz from Inglourious Basterds).
He’ll be alongside Benjamin Byron Davis (Dutch in Red Dead Redemption 2, who played Marcus in Borderlands), Ryan Allen (In the Shadow of the Moon) and Ari Millen in the role of the infamous Ice Cream Man. In France, the film has no release date yet, but in the United States, it hits theaters on August 7, 2026. Plenty of time to nibble on teaser material before the next chapter of Thanksgiving, already announced.
