We All Scream for Ice Cream (Masters of Horror episode)

Infobox Television episode
Title = "We All Scream for Ice Cream"
Series = Masters of Horror


Caption =
Season = 2
Episode = 10
Airdate =
Production =
Writer = David Schow
Director = Tom Holland
Guests = Lee Tergesen Colin Cunningham William Forsythe
Episode list =
Prev = Right to Die
Next = The Black Cat

"We All Scream for Ice Cream" is an episode of the series "Masters of Horror" directed by Tom Holland. It was based on the story "You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream" by John Farris.

Plot

The story starts off with Kent (Brent Sheppard) pleading for his young son not to eat an ice cream cone. As the child questions him, Kent shakingly answers that its bad for him, but to no avail - the ice cream is bitten and Kent shockingly dissolves into a puddle of melted ice cream himself.

Cut to Kent's funeral and a speech is being made with some of his childhood friends present - The West End gang they call themselves. One, named Layne Banixter (Lee Tergesen), has recently moved back with his family - wife and two kids. He observes a shaggy individual hiding in the trees with a smirk, then leaving.

While Layne is at a pub owned by his old friend Papa Joe (Tim Henry), another member of the gang, Toot (Lyle St. Goddard), is drinking himself into a stupor, rambling about the suspicious circumstances in which Kent died. Apparently, another death occurred before this one with no body found, just the clothes. Toot argues that Kent was in a closed casket because there was nothing of him but his clothes either. He ends up passing out, after telling Papa Joe quietly that all this trouble started since Layne came back to town.

Layne has a short conversation with Papa Joe, asking him if Toot will be taken care of. Assured, he heads home. On the way there, he observes several children in a coma-like state outside (the time being around midnight) clutching coins and an eerie chant of "We all scream for ice cream..." wafting quietly through the night. Concerned, Layne drives off before noticing his windows frosting up and suddenly notices his own young son standing in the way of the oncoming vehicle. Panicking, he brakes and questions the child. He too is holding a coin and answers that he doesn't want to miss the ice cream man. He carries the boy into the house and confronts his wife about what just happened.

Noticeably concerned, Layne begins to tell her of his childhood, the gang and the local ice-cream man named Buster (William Forsythe). He was a decent soul who drove an ice-cream truck and wore a clown suit. He was a friend to the kids as he was generous and often performed tricks for them. Layne and his group are standing by, watching his usual antics with the children when another kid joins them.

The neighborhood bully, Virgil Constance (Samuel Patrick Chu), is disliked by the others but manages to drag them along for his stunts. He approaches Buster and begins taunting him, finally pulling off his clown nose revealing a burnt stub - Buster has no real nose. The poor man falls to his knees, hiding it and in obvious distress.

Layne ends the story there, stating that one day Buster simply died. He gets a phone call from Papa Joe and arrives at the scene of the Toot's death - his clothes in a pile of something soft and gooey. The man who was driving him home states that he saw a wild-eyed man with long hair as soon as he found the remains. Both Layne and Joe know that it was Virgil.

When his wife wakes up the next morning, Layne asks her to take the kids to her mother (a four hour drive). She refuses and demands to know what part of the story he omitted. Distressed, Layne tells her that Virgil planned a prank on Buster whereby once he was distracted, one of them would start his truck and make it roll down the hill. While Buster is asked to get change for a five and then made to drop the coins, Virgil forces Layne to start the truck which begins rolling straight towards the ice-cream man. Too busy picking up coins to notice, Buster is run over by the truck and dies immediately from the injuries. The kids are frightened and scatter.

That night, Layne goes to see the adult Virgil (Colin Cunningham) - the shaggy man he spotted at the funeral and the last person to see the drunk man alive. He finds him in a run down place that looks like a used car lot - one of them being the Cheery Time ice-cream truck that Buster drove. Virgil is in a tub, spitting insult after another at Layne who only wants to know what happened. Virgil tells him about the drunk man melting because of his kid eating an ice cream shaped like a man. He then laughs at Layne because he does not have any kids though he has had a few women.

Meanwhile, a ghostly ice-cream truck stops in front of a little girl and a horrible scabbed hand of Buster the ice-cream man hands the girl a treat. Upon the girl biting into it, Layne witnesses Virgil simply melt away into the tub, shaking and screaming as layers of skin and flesh roll off him like ice-cream, exposing his bones.

After sending his family to his mother-in-law, Layne tests out the outside sprinklers as well as places some ordinary strawberry ice-cream into one of Buster's ice-cream wrappers he found earlier. Papa Joe's son succumbs to the treat, killing his father as he melts in his car. Layne's wife's car stops as her doors and windows are frosted over, the children hear the alluring tune of "We all scream for ice-cream..." and run out of the car. Layne hears the same tune and, carrying a small cooler, walks outside for a showdown. Buster's vengeful spirit offers an ice-cream to Layne's kids as they show up, entranced. As they fight over it, Layne and Buster struggle together until Layne turns on the garden sprinklers, freezing the clown.

This does not stop Buster but Layne's son sees an ice-cream which fell out of his father's cooler and takes out of the wrapper an ice-cream made by Layne which is shaped exactly like Buster. One bite and the clown dies just like his previous victims.

In the next scene we see the family outside the car, all ready to move to a new place. As everyone gets in, Layne hears the old creepy tune again and the film ends with a flash of Buster the ice-cream man's rotten face.

External links

*imdb title|id=0817402|title=We All Scream for Ice Cream