Director Eli Roth has confirmed that his upcoming horror film, "Ice Cream Man," incorporates generative artificial intelligence in a limited capacity. This clarification follows earlier statements where Roth had suggested a particular AI-assisted sequence was entirely hand-drawn.
The film, which features a premise involving an ice cream truck driver who turns children into killers, has drawn attention for its visual style and prompted speculation about its use of AI. Credits in early reviewer copies of the film list the AI visual effects company Dark Half, further fueling online discussions.
Roth initially described one notable sequence—an eerie cartoon inspired by Fleischer Studios that plays on children's phones—as something he had drawn himself. He told Polygon that he worked with animators to recreate the style of 1920s cartoons, drawing key frames to achieve the desired jittery aesthetic. "I have an animation background and I drew it," Roth stated previously. "I worked with an animation team and I wanted it to look and feel like — there's an old Mickey Mouse cartoon where he goes to a haunted house and there's brooms and dancing skeletons and this kind of flowing dancing stuff and the jittery style of the animation."
Following up on these comments, Roth issued a statement clarifying the extent of AI's involvement. "I misspoke. AI was used in a very small portion of a few scenes in the film," he told Polygon. He emphasized that the technology was an opportunity for "technology and creativity came together to help bring my vision for the film to life." Roth did not specify which scenes contained AI-generated elements or detail the exact methods of incorporation, reiterating that its use was confined to "a very small portion of a few scenes."
Polygon has reached out to Roth's representative and Dark Half for further details on the AI's application. The film is scheduled to premiere in theaters on August 7.