Sunday, April 27, 2008

We All Scream For Ice Cream: Movie Review #9

We All Scream For Ice Cream (2007)

I am definitely on a quest to see every horror film ever made that involves clowns. Not because I am, or have ever been, afraid of them, but rather because they bring a real element of fun to a genre so reliant on fear (blood and guts aren't so bad when there's a red nose and rainbow wig involved). Crazed carnivals and twisted big-tops have always been a personal favorite, so this movie was a must.

The Masters of Horror finally struck gold here, with a style reminiscent of the old Tales from the Crypt HBO shows. Buster The Clown, a stuttering ice cream man and "magician," comes back from the dead to destroy a group of friends known as The West Side Bunch, who accidentally killed him during a childhood prank years prior. Now all grown up, their own children are under Buster's spell, walking around zombie-like mumbling about "the best ice cream in the whole world." The ice cream served from the Cheery Time truck is in fact frozen "voodoo" dolls on a stick, and when the kids eat them their parents die. Better yet - they MELT. As they say in the film: "Your kid bites it, you bite the big one." What an amazing revenge concept!

One of my favorite elements is the haunting voice of Buster that echoes through the entire film: I scream . . . you scream . . . we all scream for ice cream, and when he shows up on the screen to say "It's Cheery Time!" The melted ice cream bloody guts puddles are pretty damn cool as well; fog machine overkill and some frost adorns the ice cream truck from Hell.

The only fault of the film is that Buster can be temporarily "stunned" with a little H2O from the sprinkler or a toy water gun - not much of a killer if you ask me. But the water isn't enough to take him out - he finally meets his doom when one of the kids bites off the head of a homemade ice cream bar of Buster himself. The final shot of Buster's mug leaves us hoping for a sequel . . .

The film is short, but fun, and I had no choice but to make myself a chocolate sundae when the credits started to roll. I love ice cream and this movie.

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