Ice Cream Man features a scoop of AI.
That’s the revelation from horror director Eli Roth after he admitted to adopting the technology in a “few scenes” of the slasher film, despite initially saying that animated sequences were brought to life traditionally.
In an interview on Monday, the Hostel helmer was asked if he used artificial intelligence in Ice Cream Man scenes featuring a Fleischer Studios-style animation that entrances kids and transforms them into killers.
“I have an animation background and I drew it,” Roth initially told website Polygon. “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. So I drew the loop cycles and the styles. Then I had some animators help kind of make it a little more fluid, and I worked with an artist to give it a bit of an old-timey jittery feel. But I sat there and I drew out the frames that I wanted.”
It was later revealed that Ice Cream Man‘s credits included a mention of Dark Half, an AI visual effects company. Confronted with this, Roth issued a statement to Polygon clarifying his original remarks in the interview.
“I misspoke. AI was used in a very small portion of a few scenes in the film,” he said. “It was an opportunity where technology and creativity came together to help bring my vision for the film to life.”
Roth was not specific about whether his clarification referred to the animated sequences in Ice Cream Man. Deadline has contacted his rep for comment. Ice Cream Man opens on August 7.
