Director – Megan Freels Johnston – 2018 – US – Cert. 15 – 96m
**1/2
A housewife newly moved in to a suburb is unnerved by the creepy, local ice cream man and van… with good reason, as it turns out – on VoD and DVD from Monday, March 1st
Having just moved back into the neighbourhood where she grew up, Mary (Deanna Russo) should probably be worried that it looks a lot like the location of classic shocker Halloween (John Carpenter, 1979) with its pavements bordering lawns and hedges around residential houses. (There’s now prowling, gliding camera here though – the shots are mostly static.)
The locality also now boasts the traditional American ice cream truck, a simple, slow moving van which still serves exactly the same traditional ice cream that it has for generations. The ice cream man himself (Emil Johnsen) seems almost a parody of his profession, addressing both children and adults alike with archaic lines like, “hello there, young fellow.”
She takes an immediate dislike to nosy next-door neighbour Jessica (Hilary Barraford) but nevertheless accepts an invitation to a barbecue where it’s promised drink will flow celebrating the recent graduation of local couple’s son Max (John Redlinger – who feels a lot older than 18) who she meets on her way to the party as he hangs out with his girlfriend Tracy (Bailey Anne Borders) to smoke pot. Mary takes an immediate shine to the athletic-looking Max. He mentions that he does (euphemism alert) yard work for various local ladies while their husbands are out in the daytime. As a bonus he also does a nice sideline dealing weed, something to which Mary is amenable.
Similar euphemisms to Max’s can be found elsewhere in the film, for instance in the remarks of the furniture delivery man (Jeff Daniel Phillips) asks rather too many questions about whether she is living there alone. Without knocking, he also enters the room where she’s changing her top without batting an eyelid. He looks like he was included primarily as a potential subject of a possible sequel. When Mary later has a takeaway meal delivered to the house, it’s a relief to see another delivery man who is just your regular, average, bit-part delivery man character.
Once Mary reaches Max’s graduation party, which the young man is trying to avoid, she seems understandably less interested in the older, alcohol-guzzling adults of her own age than she is in the younger Max. A number of men at the party, presumably married, openly come on to her, if they’re not already pairing off with other women and disappearing out of the immediate garden. Extra-marital affairs would appear to be the local sport.
The traditionalist ice cream man, however, will have none of this. His is a world where the greatest sensory pleasure life can afford is to be found in the serving by him and consumption by his customers of ice cream. He fits neatly into the time honoured slasher film tradition of knife-wielding killers who wreak punishment upon sexually active and, in their view, morally transgressive youngsters.
Thus it is that while Max puts in an appearance at the party, Tracy is left to her own devices and approaches the ice cream truck to be persuaded inside to sample the man’s traditional flavours. At this point, he uses a hunting knife turns her into strawberry splatter all over the van interior.
Her subsequent absence doesn’t seem to worry Max, which is a little unconvincing to say the least, and in response to Mary’s request he turns up the next day to do some yard work with two mates. With a week before her husband and kids arrive, will Mary succumb to his charms? Or will she fall victim to the murderous ice cream man. Or will she fall foul of one of the other sleazy male types spotted in the neighbourhood.
The first couple of scenes feel far too long and dialogue heavy with nothing much happening. It’s like Johnston has written the scenes but then can’t bear to change them or improvise to bring them to life. Perhaps another director directing her lines would have fared better. Or perhaps she would fare better working with another writer’s script. Whatever. Either way, the net effect is to make these early scenes feel like unnecessary filler. This error of judgement is surprising since towards the end director Johnson slowly and effectively builds towards and an epic climax.
It’s more surprising given she is the granddaughter of the late, great American crime novelist Elmore Leonard whose ability to build unconventional plot out of character and motivation is legendary. Johnston may yet prove herself on another film, but this isn’t it. Promising elements such as the lone woman awaiting her husband’ and kids’ arrival are nicely done, but the characters around her never rise above cliché while we never really know why the ice cream man is the way he is and does what he does beyond lazy, slasher movie tropes that are taken for granted and never questioned.
That’s a pity, because you care about Mary’s plight and the film might have been something very special indeed. Comparisons have been made with the work of David Lynch, but for this writer The Ice Cream Man simply isn’t in that league. That said, the mannered Emil Johnsen as ice cream vendor is a pleasure to watch. What’ll it be, young viewer?
The Ice Cream Truck is out on VoD and DVD in the UK from Monday, March 1st.
Trailer (Cert. 18):