The king of horror brings “Ice Cream Man” to theatres August 7.
Eli Roth returns this summer with Ice Cream Man, opening August 7 across North America. It marks the first theatrical release of an original project under Roth’s production company, The Horror Section.
Details around the film are still being kept tight, but it follows an idyllic summer that begins to unravel when an ice cream man starts serving sweet treats with consequences that quickly turn unsettling.
The cast includes Ari Millen (Orphan Black) and Karen Cliche (Thanksgiving), alongside a mix of emerging and familiar faces, with Roth also appearing in the film. He co-wrote the project with longtime collaborator Noah Belson, while Brandon Roberts composed the score, with additional music from Snoop Dogg. Produced by Roth under his The Horror Section banner alongside Cream Productions, the project also has Nas attached as an executive producer through Mass Appeal.
Expected to open on more than 2,000 screens, it stands as one of the widest releases to date for a project under The Horror Section.
For Roth, the project has been sitting with him for years, something he first approached as a novel before eventually finding its way to the screen, a process he described when SWAGGER spoke with him for his August 2025 cover story. “I started writing it as a novel,” he told SWAGGER, explaining that the turning point came when he needed a new project for Cannes. “I told my wife, ‘I’m going to need to tune out,’” he said. “And I sat there, and it just came out of me. I didn’t even feel like I was writing. I felt like I was watching the movie.”
He described the same instinct extending beyond the script, including into the film’s sound. “There’s an ice cream song I wrote and sang into my phone,” he told SWAGGER at the time. “I sent it to a group of composers who could orchestrate it.”
Roth is also set to appear in the third season of HBO’s hit Euphoria, making for what’s shaping up to be another busy year for the filmmaker.
