Football, a sport celebrated for its raw power, often comes with a dark cost: severe head injuries that can permanently alter lives. This unsettling reality forms a central theme in the disorienting horror film, “HIM.” We meet Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers), a fresh-faced quarterback on the cusp of his professional debut, whose skull is brutally struck by a pagan-esque mascot. This trauma doesn’t just cause physical damage; it seemingly unlocks a torrent of terrifying visions. Are these mere hallucinations, a side effect of his injury, or is Cam truly witnessing something sinister beyond human comprehension?
Directed by Justin Tipping, “HIM” cleverly blends its sports themes with the chilling atmosphere of a haunted-house thriller. The ‘house’ in question is a stark, Brutalist compound isolated in the vast Texas desert, home to the revered Saviors’ quarterback, Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans). In what appears to be a generous gesture, Isaiah invites the still-recovering Cam to train there. This comes at a pivotal moment: the team owners are weighing whether to extend Isaiah’s career or hand the reins to Cam. Isaiah is visibly agitated by the thought of his legacy, obsessively recounting the immense sacrifices he made to achieve his ‘GOAT’ status. For Cam, whose father instilled a lifelong obsession with Isaiah’s legendary plays and brutal injuries, this invitation feels like the culmination of his entire existence.
From the moment we meet him, Isaiah exudes the aura of an evil millionaire, casually mounting an animal skull on his wall. His disturbingly nonchalant reaction to the increasingly deranged events only amplifies the film’s pervasive menace. Cam is routinely injected with a mysterious painkiller by Isaiah’s physician, while Isaiah’s influencer wife, Elsie (Julia Fox), embodies the classic femme fatale with her striking bleached eyebrows. A particularly unsettling scene shows a group of muscular, ominous men joining their training. One man, seemingly in a trance, repeatedly endures direct hits to the face from a football machine, all at Isaiah’s quiet command.
The film explicitly intertwines the worlds of sports and religion. Fervent fans possess an almost religious faith, top athletes are idolized like gods, and the colossal industry of professional sports, from the draft to packed stadiums where spectators chant like zealots, is portrayed as a system built on rituals and unwavering devotion. “HIM” makes no attempt at subtlety with these parallels, which could be effective if the script didn’t lean so heavily on Isaiah’s overtly sinister one-liners to hammer the point home (like declaring the locker room ‘smells like brotherhood’ or his priorities being ‘football, family and God’ in that precise, unsettling order).
While the film touts a new side of Marlon Wayans, portraying him as a convincing, disturbed character, he ultimately lacks a truly terrifying presence. Perhaps years of on-field concussions have blunted his menace, or his older age and smaller stature compared to his protégé diminish his intimidating aura. Tyriq Withers, a former college football player, delivers a remarkably innocent performance, though he remains in a wide-eyed, overwhelmed state for much of the film. The intentionally disorienting editing plunges Cam into mental turmoil, yet often leaves viewers feeling trapped in an overly stylized music video. Title cards that present words like “poise” and “leadership” in blood-red medieval font split up the events into days, though the sense of mounting momentum seems slight because the film’s vertiginous qualities keep you in a dizzy, convoluted head space. An overreliance on the soundtrack, which churns out one banger after the next, doesn’t help, and neither does the film’s mostly empty stylization.
A notable exception to the film’s stylistic missteps is the use of X-ray vision during Cam’s tackles. This effect manages to be more viscerally disturbing than any bloody depiction. These brief, slow-motion sequences starkly reveal the brutal impact of each hit – the bone-cracking and immediate swelling – making us question how these athletes endure such punishment. The film strongly implies that only a profound form of brainwashing could foster such an extreme, relentless drive.
“HIM” arrives with the backing of Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, a name increasingly linked with Black horror cinema. The film touches on the politically charged concept of Black athletes essentially performing as modern-day gladiators for affluent white investors, inadvertently fueling aspirations of glory in younger Black generations. While this premise offers potent nightmare fuel, “HIM” regrettably treats it as a given, failing to fully explore its depths. Ultimately, the experience feels akin to being trapped in a dark stadium tunnel with the characters, repeatedly encountering the same themes and vaguely defined threats, when what we truly desired was more compelling action and deeper exploration.
HIM
Rated R for needle injections, bloody violence and brutal athletic injuries. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters.