When I was a child, my mother had my room decorated with clowns. She never understood why when I was a kid I never wanted to sleep in my room. It was always because those dam clowns scared the shit out of me. I never told her this until I was twenty one years old, when the issue came up. We all laughed it off. But I still hate clowns.
The latest Master of Horror Episode to hit DVD is one in which our killer is a Clown, We All Scream for Ice Cream. This episode is directed by Tom Holland (Child’s Play, Fright Night) is about an ice cram truck driver whom dresses as a clown named Buster played by William Forsythe (The Devil’s Rejects). Buster is a mentally challenged man. He sells ice cream and performs magic tricks for young children in the neighborhood. when a group of young kids decide to play a joke on Buster, the joke turns deadly and Buster is killed by his own truck. Years later the kids are all adults and have children of their own. Now the ghost of Buster has returned and at night time he drives up and down the neighborhood streets. He puts a spell on all of the young children and makes them meet him by the road, while their parents are put into a deep sleep. However the ice cream he is giving to the kids is that of an equivalence of a voodoo doll, except it’s made out of ice cream. When the kids eat it, their parents die. Now it’s up to Kent (Brent Sheppard) the person who started the whole mess to save his kids and the rest of the neighborhood before they all end up dead at the hands of Buster.
My initial reaction to this movie was’ “Oh shit, not another clown film.” as I stated above I hate clowns, so the thought of watching this film made the scare factor for me go up a little bit based on the latter. Clowns are and will always be a great attribute to the great scares among the horror genre. They can be used to scare people in many different ways. This film is no question one that only adds to the list of horror clown films.
The script for this film is not half bad. It was written by David J. Schow (The Crow) and is based on a story from best selling author John Farris. The script has some good and bad moments, one thing that bothered me about it was how much it jumped around in time. I was hoping when I first put on this film I would be told the back story right off the bat. However it was given to us a little at a time between each scene. However the script did get tell the story that it was supposed too, and the character development was pretty good as well.
The acting in this episode is actually it’s strong point. William Forsythe performance as Buster the clown was suburb. At first I didn’t even know that it was Forsythe in the role, until I read the back of the box cover. I mean he really did such a great job in this role, that even though he was in make-up for the whole film his acting ability really turned him into the character. The rest of the cast including actor Brent Sheppard in the lead as Kent and actor Lee Tergesen (TCSM: The Beginning) rounded out the great cast of this film. But it was Forsythe’s performance that really stole the show.
The overall production value of this episode was very good. The overall night time astrosphere in this film was expectantly creepy, the fog and lighting techniques used to give off this gloomy atmosphere. Most of the sets in this film revolved around on location shoots and took place in houses. There was one scene however that involved our lead character of Kent visiting one of his childhood buddies whom lived in quite a unique place, where he took a bath in a large barrel. Still though the set looked pretty dam good. The make-up effects and limited CGI was actually very good in this film. There are some pretty good gore filled scenes in which the flesh actually melt off the characters human bodies. Forsythe make-up as the demon clown was pretty cool looking as well and very convincing.
Overall, We All Scream For Ice Cream was a pretty good Masters of Horror episode. The story was pretty easy to understand although I wish it was written in a more traditional format. I really enjoyed the overall creepy atmosphere that the film gave off and the great performance that William Forsythe gave in his role as Buster. If you are fan of Stephen King’s IT or Killer Clowns from Outer Space, then We All Scream for Ice Cream is a killer clown film that you enjoy. It’s not as creepy as Stephen King’s IT, but it still has a very genuine creepy feel to it. Well worth adding to your Masters of Horror DVD collection.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
