Twenty years ago Buster the Clown drove around in his Cheery Time ice cream truck, delivering smiles and tasty treats to the neighborhood kids. Buster would hop out and do magic tricks and give you a balloon animal for free and if you were the first to say his name, well then, you got your ice cream for free. Yes Sir, Buster was a delight for all the children in the neighborhood for years that is until a prank went horribly wrong and poor old Buster ended up a big ol’ pile of soft serve on the pavement. But Buster has learned that revenge is a dish best served cold from the grave, with two scoops, sprinkles on top and in a waffle cone!

We All Scream for Ice Cream is another episode from the Showtime series Masters of Horror, but don’t get your hopes up to high, because this frozen treat is kind of a rocky road.

You would think an hour episode about a killer clown coming back from the grave to get vengeance on those that wronged him would be easy to do, but for some reason this can’t be pulled off in this tale. First off Buster is a good guy; also they make it a point to show him in a very positive light. He’s a bit slow, good with kids and a hard working joe, just trying to get by in this crazy world doing what he loves, selling ice cream and doing magic. But NOOOOO, a bunch of bullies have to pick on him and make fun of his faults and then to top it all off they cause the death of poor Buster, accident or not.

The problem is Buster is the hero of this tale, but they turn him into the bad guy, WTF! This episode should have been more like Dark Night of the Scarecrow, but it ends up as some kind of half-ass Nightmare on Elm Street as Buster goes after his murderer’s children, in an indirect way, to get his revenge. This part of the story just didn’t work for me, I just felt Buster had the right to do what he does, but then I normally root for the villain, but he’s really not a villain.

Anyway, while that may not have worked what does work in this one is the gore and goo, and with Buster’s occupation you can be sure that things are going to be sticky and icky to the fullest. Flesh melting, ice cream vomiting and evil clowns all look amazing in this one and the fine folks at K.N.B effects deserve another great pat on the back. Also actor William Forsythe does a great job as well as Buster and his little “I scream, you scream” taunt is pretty damn chilling and hypnotic as well.

What kills this one is the pacing and events in the story as they unfold, it seems rushed and it just doesn’t need to be, this could have been an outstanding episode, but it just ends up melting all over the place before you get a chance to finish it, which was a shame because I wouldn’t have minded seeing old Buster show up again sometime later.

3 of 10