In a quiet Californian suburb during the 1960s, young Gregory Tudor, Clint Howard, grows up close to the town’s infamous ice cream man, Butch Brickle, known as “The Ice Cream King” and convincingly brought to life by Cole S. McKay. By the 1970s, Gregory has seized control of the business, calling himself “The Ice Cream Prince” and continuing to use the old truck and faded parlor as a front for something far darker than a simple dessert shop. Unseen by the public, the parlor becomes a private laboratory where he crafts grotesque concoctions, blending insects with dismembered human pieces in secret experiments.
One night, Gregory’s cruel reach extends to Nurse Wharton’s dog, a victim of his growing paranoia and violence; Olivia Hussey portrays the nurse who is also his landlord and someone who helped him cope with the trauma of his childhood. On that same night, Roger Smith, a neighborhood boy, vanishes from the streets, casting a shadow over the community. The increasingly frightened children—Johnny Spodak, Justin Isfeld; Heather Langley, Anndi McAfee; and Tuna Cassera, JoJo Adams—band together to search for Roger, hoping to uncover the truth behind the disappearances. Another boy, Small Paul, also disappears, tightening the web of fear around the town.
At first, the grown-ups—especially the police and Nurse Wharton—refuse to accept the children’s fears, doubting the trio’s suspicions. Gregory’s memories return in jagged fragments of abuse at the Wishing Well Sanatorium, a place where danger lurks behind closed doors and the doctors’ and administrators’ sanity seems to crumble. The kids press on and uncover the horrible fact: Gregory has kidnapped Roger and Small Paul, imprisoning them in a cage inside the parlor’s grim interior. Small Paul, rather than fleeing, displays a disturbing fascination with the experiments, and Gregory, in a disturbing twist, takes the boy under his wing.
Two detectives arrive to investigate the chaotic Wishing Well, a situation where unregulated care and free-roaming patients create total mayhem. As the authorities tighten their search for Roger and Small Paul, Gregory strikes again, kidnapping Tuna and forcing Heather to enlist Johnny’s older brother Jacob in the investigation. The confrontation grows tragic when Gregory kills Jacob and his girlfriend, escalating the danger hanging over the town. In a cunning trap, Small Paul lures Gregory by showing a photo of the Ice Cream King, guiding him toward the main mixer—where Gregory meets his grisly end as the gears grind and he is dismembered.
Roger and Tuna are eventually reunited with their friends, who reveal that Small Paul has been sent to therapy. The final scene lingers on Small Paul alone in a darkened room, quietly churning an ice cream bucket, his face twisting into the same malevolent leer that haunted Gregory, signaling a chilling echo of the past and a chilling warning for what may come next.
