Eli Roth knows a thing or two about slasher films. But in his latest, “Ice Cream Man,” he tackles the challenge of casting kids as the killers.
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NEW YORK – If you try to joke with director Eli Roth that his latest slasher film, “Ice Cream Man” (in theaters Aug. 7), ruins the summer ritual for kids and adults, he’ll beat you to the punchline.
“I’ve ruined a lot of things,” Roth, 54, tells USA TODAY. “I’ve ruined backpacking [‘Hostel’], I’ve ruined going to a cabin [‘Cabin Fever’], I’ve ruined Thanksgiving. Why not?”
The holiday that features turkey and pumpkin pie served as the title for his 2023 slasher.
Roth directed, produced, co-wrote and plays a role in “Ice Cream Man,” in which that aforementioned sweet treat deliverer (Ari Millen) dishes out ice cream to the local kids. The byproduct of eating the dessert is a little more horrifying than your typical childhood sugar rush.
The director started to ideate the premise of the film about 20 years ago.
“We could have got it at the market, but somehow (the ice cream) always tasted better coming off a truck,” he says. “And then in the ’80s, there were some sketchy ice cream dudes. And I saw all the kids there and I thought, ‘What if the ice cream just made them go crazy and they killed all the adults?’ “
That brings up a key difference between this movie and Roth’s past horror films: He needed to cast a number of children to play the slashers.
“I was really upfront with the parents,” the director recalls. “I explained exactly what we were going to do and I talked about why I wanted to make this movie. And they were like, ‘Yeah, great. No problem.’ “
Roth also reveals that the children who landed roles in the movie were “unaffected” by the premise to the point where many of the props became toys.
“The kids are playing jump rope with intestines and tetherball with a head,” Roth remembers. “It’s like Christmas morning for them. When we put the kids in the makeup, there was no direction required.”
Set rules required that parents “have visual eye contact with their children at all times,” he says.
“They understand Halloween,” Roth adds of the children who were cast. “The parents actually said, ‘This is great. So when we watch a scary movie, they’ll know how it was done.’ “
Eli Roth merges horror and hip-hop with ‘Ice Cream Man’
Roth will release “Ice Cream Man” through The Horror Section, an independent film company he founded. The movie is also produced through a partnership with Mass Appeal, the entertainment company founded by Nas.
But he’s not the only hip-hop legend involved in Roth’s latest release.
Snoop Dogg contributed “Ice Cream Song” to the film’s closing credits. He also assisted in the movie’s score. Roth says the rapper, born Calvin Broadus Jr., texted him the original song after a quick conversation the two had about the film.
This won’t be their last collaboration: Roth and Snoop are set to co-produce a horror flick with the NSFW title “Don’t Go in That House, Bitch!” The director says their partnership comes naturally because of their mutual love for hip-hop and horror.
“It was like a joke fake trailer,” Roth says of the origins of “Don’t Go.” When Snoop saw it, he asked to play the neighbor who warns people about the haunted home. Roth also pulled the rapper in as a producer.
“We’re going to make ‘Don’t Go in That House, Bitch!’ because we just find it funny,” he says. “I’m still internally a perpetual 15-year-old. I get that excited about horror movies.”