“Eli Roth is a special kind of disturbed.”

That’s by no means a clinical psychological diagnosis — I’m not remotely qualified to make one — but it is the thought I had early and often while taking in the director’s new serving of absurd but unsettling horror, “Ice Cream Man.”

In theaters this week, Roth’s 10th movie takes one of the purest of American institutions, the ice cream man — who, roaming suburbia via a music-emitting van, overcharges parents for cool, sugary treats their kids see as something that will make a summer day epic — and turns him into something truly evil.

Roth is not the first to do this, of course — among the offerings vilifying this purveyor of delights is a 1995 movie with the same title as this flick — but Roth’s enjoyable-in-its-way “Ice Cream Man” may be the first in which the titular figure uses his desserts to turn children into feral zombie-like beings.

That’s cold, bro.

Stemming from a dream Roth had more than two decades ago that, according to the movie’s production notes, was “oozing with dread and viscera, and sticky with the relentless drip of slowly melting ice cream,” the unrated “Ice Cream Man” is set in the seemingly idyllic Bayleen Bay. There, with a few days until summer break, kids jump rope, run around and play baseball.

And, obviously, they eagerly accept the chilled products handed out by a thin, mustachioed ice cream man (Ari Millen, “Orphan Black”). While 12-year-old Jared (Charlie Zeltzer, “The Handmaid’s Tale”) is among them, his older sister, Lizzie (Sarah Abbott, “Black Mirror”), forbids him to eat it due to his lactose intolerance. (Finally, the lactose-intolerant boy will get to be the hero!).

Hours later, those who consumed the frozen treasures — some of which, by the way, have concerning names such as the Creepy Crawly — are murdering their parents in decidedly gruesome ways. (Not one but two children employ saws.)

Things aren’t much better the next day at school, where the kids arrive as seemingly mindless drones, causing one teacher to ask whether this is “some sort of zombie/pajama day challenge.” He should be only so lucky.

When The Ice Cream Man arrives with a well-stocked van, the mayhem begins again. I’ll spare you most of the gory — and I do mean “gory” — details, but know that an ice cream scooper is used to accomplish a task for which it was certainly not designed.

Jared teams up with a couple of other unaffected students, Mia (Kiori Mirza Waldman) and Tommy (Shiloh O’Reilly), to escape the school. They eventually meet up with Lizzie, who has reluctantly enlisted the help of her ex-boyfriend, Chris (Dylan Hawco), and try to defeat this evil — by attempting to follow a complicated set of instructions from a priest (Benjamin Byron Davis) with ties to The Ice Cream Man.

I must admit I am anything but well-versed in Roth’s work, which ranges from 2005’s “Hostel,” which earned the label “torture porn,” to 2023 holiday slasher “Thanksgiving.” (His most recent effort was 2024’s extremely poorly reviewed “Borderlands,” the science-fiction action comedy adaptation of the video game series.)

Best I can tell, “Ice Cream Man” is closest in tone to his directorial debut, the 2002 comedy horror romp “Cabin Fever,” which was somewhat well received by critics and surely has its fans.

Beyond moments that had me turning my head way in shock, there’s not much here for me; the storytelling is uninteresting, the characters vaguely better than bland and the performances run-of-the-mill. However, there IS much for those truly in it for the gore. If the appeal is discovering what grotesque occurrences Roth and co-writer Noah Belson have cooked up, trust that the pair have packed plenty into the sub-90-minute affair.

Roth also portrays the father of Jared and Lizzy in the movie.

This is a bright and, in its way, cheery slice of cinema from Roth that pairs surprisingly well with a sunny day.

Bring your appetite for blood. But maybe lay off the ice cream.

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'ICE CREAM MAN'

2.5 stars (out of 4)

No MPA rating (chock-full of violence and gore)

Running time: 1:26

How to watch: In theaters Aug. 6

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