Living in the suburbs was once considered the idyllic culmination of the American way of life, but after films like Halloween, Poltergeist and Nightmare on Elm Street, we’ve grown accustomed to horrific events taking place in what should be the dreamiest neighborhoods of the United States. Megan Freels Johnston’s new film, The Ice Cream Truck, is a peculiar throwback to these suburbanite thrillers.
The Ice Cream Truck stars Deanna Russo as Mary, a young writer moving back to her hometown as she waits for her husband and son to join her in the suburbs. While dealing with local housewives and drug-dealing teenagers is hard enough for the lonely mother, there’s also a serial killing ice cream vendor prowling the streets in his old-fashioned Truck, and it looks like Mary might be on his list.
While the setting isn’t particularly original for a horror film (though I’m not sure if there are that many unexplored venues left for scary movies in 2017), Johnston’s well-paced storytelling and Russo’s charisma make this an extremely compelling experience, even if it doesn’t exactly hit all the right notes. To be honest, I was much more enveloped in Mary’s dilemma as a mother that just didn’t fit in than the bow-tie-wearing murderer.
The charming main character and believable secondary cast are what make The Ice Cream Truck stand out from conventional horror movies, as the kills bow to the main plot rather than the other way around. Nevertheless, the film is lacking in the frights department, as the killer’s subplot feels disconnected from the rest of the story. At times, it feels like a slasher movie randomly crashed into an introspective drama, and the filmmakers just went with it.
This doesn’t necessarily ruin the film, but it would have been nice to mesh these concepts together more elegantly, with the killer playing a bigger part in Mary’s dramatic journey instead of just murdering characters unrelated to the main story. That being said, it was nice to see him ominously show up in various scenes, always lurking in the background, even if he didn’t have all that much to do.
Additionally, the movie also boasts an entertaining John-Carpenter-esque synth score, though it does feel a bit out of place considering the film’s overall tone. It works during chase sequences and certain dramatic scenes, but other times it just gets in the way. The titular truck’s ice cream jingle was certainly spooky with its false sense of child-like innocence, though.
Ultimately, The Ice Cream Truck makes up for most of its shortcomings with a charming protagonist and a witty script, even if some elements feel uneven. Johnston’s John Carpenter influence might not always mesh with the story at hand, but at the very least it makes things interesting. It might not be the ice-cream vending serial killer splatterfest that you might have hoped for, but the movie is definitely worth a watch.
The Ice Cream Truck is available now on VOD!
