As a horror short this was such a breath of fresh air and a very pleasant surprise for me after all the mediocre shorts films I've been watching lately. It was really awesome and just my type, the relying on the atmosphere and mystery of the horrific and uncanny situation set in disconcertingly sunny suburbia, and giving you just enough during the moderately brief running time that you get the grisly kick of the story but it doesn't lose its enigmatic nature. It was one of the very few horror shorts that I've seen posted to the Crypt TV Youtube channel that didn't rely on the appearance of some scary monster to carry and sell the overall effect of an otherwise decent enough short, it wasn't a jumpscare short, it was more of a creeping weird getting under the skin kind of short that didn't need a big oogah-booga! moment at the end to make it work, not that the approach doesn't have its charm! Why does the monstrous, grunting ice cream man demand such a painful toll, and why do the parents of the children not even seem to care? Ah but you don't really need to know sometimes and that can be a beauty in horror when it's done just right, it's more unsettling and freaky that way. There wasn't a ton of gore but what there was, was very effective, when the mother cuts off her finger without so much as a flinch the practical effect looked so convincing that I winced for her! So wonderfully weird and effective, this is one gem of a horror short that's most-assuredly worth a viewing. It won't cost you an arm or a leg, but it may cost you exactly one finger.... Heh! Excellent short.
