Despite the talent roster assigned to this installment of Masters Of Horror - Tom Holland (the man who directed Fright Night and Child's Play, David J. Schow (the man who wrote two Texas Chainsaw Massacre films and The Crow, and William Forsythe (of The Devil's Rejects) - We All Scream For Ice Cream unfortunately smells of wasted potential.

Forsythe plays Buster, an ice cream man in a clown costume who was killed in a freak accident when a kid's prank went horribly wrong years ago. One night, he returns from the grave in full clown make up to get revenge against the kids who let him die. Of course, these kids are now all grown up and have children of their own and it's on these children that Buster sets his sights. He tracks down these kids, many of whom have taken to standing around the streets at night and acting rather odd, and gives them ice cream cones which, when they're eaten, cause the kids' fathers to melt into piles of goop. Layne (Lee Tergesen), one of the kids who has now grown up, decides to try and stop Buster from wiping those involved off the face of the planet but he's on Buster's list too and it won't be easy to prevent the demonic clown from wreaking havoc.

The plot synopsis makes the film sound more than a little goofy, and unfortunately that's exactly the case here. Granted, Forsythe is really good as Buster the demented ghost clown but come on... how can we take this seriously? The plot is simply ridiculous. Granted, clowns are often quite frightening and the make up job done on Forsythe's weathered face is definitely very effective and obviously horror films aren't always the most realistic efforts but a ghost clown? He even drives around in a spooky ice cream truck and is often times shrouded in fog and smoke and shadows just to emphasize how evil he is. Sadly, this movie is really corny.

Forsythe, however, and some of the effects set pieces are enough to make We All Scream For Ice Cream worth a look. It's not likely you're going to want to watch it more than once but a single viewing to check out some of the interesting effects work that takes place during the wonderfully gooey melting scenes isn't completely unwarranted and Forsythe really does throw himself into the role with a lot of manic enthusiasm. A shame then that the film relies so heavily on clichés and predictable plot devices. The film also gets repetitive in spots, which is sad considering that it's only an hour long. We don't need to see Buster's spooky ghost truck cruising through the night two zillion times, once or twice would be enough.

Where the film shines, however, is in its look. The movie has a very interesting color scheme that gives certain scenes an interesting candy coated look and feel that suits the basic premise nicely. Shadows are used effectively and the compositions are well planned out and carefully shot. A shame then that the movie feels more like a cheesy morality play than an actual horror movie. Had more thought been put into Buster's motivation and his methods and less emphasis been put on the right or wrong of the situation things maybe could have been more interesting but as it stands this is a visually impressive film with a solid lead performance and good effects that really doesn't go anywhere.

Video:

We All Scream For Ice Cream is, like every episode in the series so far, presented in an anamorphic 1.78.1 widescreen transfer. For the most part, things look pretty good on this disc. There are some mild compression artifacts present here and there in the darker scenes, but aside from that the image is decent. Color reproduction looks accurate and at times quite bold while flesh tones look lifelike and natural. There is a pretty solid level of both foreground and background detail present through the majority of the movie. Like the rest of the second season discs, this is not a flawless transfer, but it is a very good one.