Skip to main content

Ice Cream Man (1995) - Norman Apstein


Ice Cream Man may look like another throw away, straight-to-video schlock piece. And it just might be. However, it actually has a kind of interesting story to go along with it. The movie stars b-movie icon, Clint Howard in his first leading role since Evilspeak and is the first and only foray into mainstream media by porn director Paul Norman. Another interesting fact is that this movie was sponsored by Converse shoes. 

Gregory is released from the Wishing Well Sanatorium after spending years there. He was originally locked up after going insane from seeing his favorite Ice Cream Man murdered in front of him. Now a free man, Gregory wants nothing more than to make children happy. So he opens the old ice cream factory and becomes an Ice Cream Man. He loves seeing the smiles on the children faces. However, he also wants to chop the kids up and use them in his special flavors. A small group of kids witnesses the ice cream man abduct their friend and they vow to get him back.

The effects are actually pretty good. They are provided by Mark Garbarino's Funhouse. They definitely wanted to make sure that the blood and guts were still firmly in place. I had watched the MonsterVision version on YouTube and didn't feel shorted. Also, Joe Bob Briggs has Clint Howard on as a guest and they get into some really cool discussions. Howard comments on how he would drive home from these shoots covered in blood. He loved seeing the reactions on people on the freeway. 

This is a pretty decent b-movie. Definitely better than most of the crap that had come out during this time. You get a good deal of blood and guts. On top of a good deal of black comedy. It's just too campy and cheap to make it any further than it did. I liked the Goonies/Stand By Me-esq group of kids. They made it far more interesting. But they couldn't save it. 

Director: Paul Norman
Producer: Paul Norman
Writer: Sven Davison and David Dobkin
Starring: Clint Howard, Olivia Hussey, Andrea Evans and E.E. Bell
Studio: A-Pix Entertainment Inc. and Ardustry Home Entertainment LLC
Country: United States
Did ya Know: The first draft of the script was written in three days.











Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Humanoids From the Deep (1980) - Barbara Peeters and Jimmy T. Murakami

This is your standard old drive-in Creature Feature that has tons of gore and boobs. It's great if your in for a cheap thrill. This film goes right up along side any Roger Corman produced picture from the eighties. It's rumored that Joe Dante was approached to direct this movie but he turned it down. Humanoids from the Deep, also known as Monster, is a strange but forgettable piece of exploitation that failed to make it's notch in history. Don't let that detour you though. This is a really fun little film that doesn't fail to be entertaining.  A small sea town in California is terrorized by some mutated creatures from the deep. They look like some sort of mutated fish, merman-thing. They seem to have one goal in mind and that is raping and impregnating the females of the town. Also the town is being taken for a ride by a shifty businessman and his new corporate cannery. Could this evil cannery corporation be responsible for the Extreme Creatures of the B...
2 comments
Not scared yet? »

Escape From Tomorrow (2013) - Randy Moore

This review may contain spoilers. An American independent horror movie from filmmaker Randy Moore. It stars Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton, Annet Mahendru, and Alison Lees-Taylor. It premiered at the official selection of Roger Ebert, at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18th, 2013. Synopsis Jim is a depressed middle-aged man that despises his family life but wants to try to hold it together for a vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort. Jim receives a call before they leave and, unfortunately, Jim has lost his job as well. It proves too much to handle as this trip to the Magic Kingdom becomes a hellish nightmare. Jim’s mind cracks as we watch him deal with Disney’s seedy underbelly. Complete with elaborate corporate conspiracy, undercover sex workers, and demons. Oh and two very young French girls that Jim lusts over. It’s gross. Analysis The acting is amateurish. It’s nothing that’s going to win any awards or anything. The wri...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »