Here’s our review for “HIM,” the new football themed horror film where a prospect works with an all-time legend to see if he’s willing to sacrifice what it takes to play at the highest levels …
By Damon Martin – Editor/Lead Writer
Before “Him” was released into theaters, I decided to do a quick search to see how many sports themed horror films existed and let’s just say there aren’t many.
When a movie like “Black Swan” is consistently listed among the best — a beloved favorite but absolutely not a sports movie — it’s safe to say that horror really hasn’t touched big time athletics. That all changes with “Him” — the new Jordan Peele produced horror film starring Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers and Julia Fox about a college football star looking to take the next step into the pros and he finds an all-time legend to serve as his mentor to get him ready.
Now this review is being posted after “Him” has already spent a couple of days in theaters and a quick look around the internet, Instagram or TikTok will show that this movie isn’t really finding an audience. The overall reaction has been pretty poor and part of me believes that actually comes down to the themes this film is tackling (no pun intended) while it seems like others went into this one somehow fooled that it was actually a Jordan Peele movie without noticing that it was just his production company behind the film.
“Him” centers around Cameron Cade (Withers) — a football star who has been groomed from a young age to become the GOAT (greatest of all time) with a father who watched his son grow up admiring Isaiah White (Wayans), an eight-time champion widely considered the best to ever touch the field. But tragedy strikes for Cade just before the combine — a yearly ritual where college athletes gather and show off their skills in front of pro scouts — when he’s viciously attacked and left with potential brain damage.
In the aftermath of his injury, Cameron receives an invite to go train with his idol, Isaiah White, who wants to see if he still has what it takes to play at an elite level but more importantly possibly sign with his team and take over after he retires. But after Cameron arrives at Isaiah’s secluded desert compound, he begins to realize that the legend he’s admired his entire life has some really bizarre training techniques not to mention the nightmarish visions lingering around every corner.
The concept of this movie is simple enough — how far would you push and what are you willing to sacrifice for a chance at becoming the GOAT?
For most high level athletes, that answer is traditionally anything. Remember football is a sport where Ronnie Lott — one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the game — had part of his finger amputated rather than undergoing surgery that could have forced him to miss time. There are always these oddball questionnaires swirling around where football players, basketball players, baseball players, etc are asked if they’d give up years off their life for more years on the field or court and they almost all universally answer yes without hesitation.
So first and foremost, you have to understand that “Him” is a story about athletes reaching a breaking point and then pushing beyond it if that’s what it takes to succeed. Name your sports cliché but failure is not an option really seems to fit the theme of this movie.
While the training sequences in this film are intense and violent, it’s the acid-trip moments that unravel when Cameron isn’t throwing a football that kind of muddy what this movie is trying to prove. Sometimes horror films like getting weird just for the sake of getting weird and it can work but often times it just gets confusing and doesn’t really fit in the overall theme of the story.
That said, Marlon Wayans definitely steals the show and basically puts on the kind of performance that’s reminiscent of Jamie Foxx when he played a quarterback in Oliver Stone football epic “Any Given Sunday.” In those days, Foxx was widely just seen as a comedic actor but that performance helped put him into a whole different category and he eventually went onto win an Oscar for “Ray” and probably should have received more love for his performance in “Django Unchained.”
That’s the kind of showing Wayans is giving here, although he’s had a little more experience with disturbing roles in his past — look no further than “Requiem for a Dream” as proof of that!
Withers does his best to keep up but he almost feels out of place standing opposite Wayans in this movie despite actually having a real football background. In some ways, Withers’ history of athletics almost holds him back here because it constantly feels like he’s trying to exist within a certain structure rather than just throwing caution to the wind and really letting his freak flag fly.
Julia Fox also deserves a nod for playing Wayans’ wife Elsie in this movie. She’s the queen of social media and opulence, playing one part Brittany Mahomes and another part Gwyneth Paltrow with her weird pseudoscience jade butt plugs.
In many ways it feels like “Him” either goes too far or doesn’t go far enough when it comes to the themes of athletes pushing past their limits and literally breaking their bodies to get to the top or stay there.
When it comes to the story itself, it felt like writers Zack Akers, Skip Bronkie and Justin Tipping were trying to balance the sports with the horror and neither totally fits throughout the entirety of the movie. To their credit, however, “Him” is a breezy 90-minute movie so they didn’t bog this down with extraneous monologues that slow the movie to a crawl (see “Any Given Sunday” as reference for that).
The ending while totally bat-shit crazy also feels anticlimactic when it comes to the big payoff. Sure, they took launched a Hail Mary in hopes of scoring a game-winning touchdown but instead like most last ditch efforts, the ball ultimately bounces around before thudding to the ground.
To be perfectly clear, “Him” isn’t nearly as bad as some critics are making it out to be, it’s just a film that gets mired in too many flashy, fever dream scenes without enough substance in the story to back it up. There’s actually one major plot point in the third act that I’m not sure most reviewers have even picked up on — and that’s because it’s almost treated as an afterthought rather than a major twist.
Overall, “Him” dives into some really big ideas and the sports themes do work at moments so here’s hoping this isn’t the last horror movie set in this world. The execution and the story just needs a better payoff or this team isn’t even making it to the playoffs.
“Him” earns a 3 out of 5 Tarman rating.
