HIM
(director/writer: Justin Tippin; screenwriter: Zack Akers, Skip Bronkie; cinematographer: Kira Kelly; editor: Taylor Mason; music: Bobby Krylic; cast: Marlan Waylans (Isaiah), Tyriq Withers (Cam Cade), Julia Fox (Elsie), Tim Heidecker (Tom, manager), Jim Jefferies (Marco, trainer), Maurice Greene (Malek/Horned Fanatic), Chase Garland (Cad), Naomi Grossman (Majorie), Richard Lippert (Saviors Owner), Austin Pulliam (Young Cam), Don Benjamin (Father of Cam), Indira G. Wilson (Yvette, Cam’s widowed mom), Geron McKinley (Drew, Cam’s older brother), Heather Lynn Harris (Jasmine, Cam’s girlfriend), Naomi Grossman (Majorie); Runtime: 96; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Ian Cooper, Jordan Peale, Win Rosenfeld, Jamal M. Watson; Monkeypaw/Universal Pictures; 2025)
“Dreadful satire.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Justin Tippin (“Kicks”) directs and co-writes with Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie this dreadful satire that mixes in a heavy-handed manner the sports genre with the horror genre (turning it stylishly but in a hollow way into a psychological supernatural horror pic).
The incoherent film is a disappointing Jordan Peele (“Get Out”) produced project.
Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) is a gifted college quarterback about to turn pro. He was mentored to be a great QB by his late father (Don Benjamin). Cam suffers from numerous on-the-field football injuries and a head injury from an implausible off-the-field attack by a crazed fanatic dressed as a ghoulish mascot in a ram’s mask, who attacks him for no apparent reason with an axe when he’s alone after practice at night on the football field. This causes Cam to get stitches in his head and feel dizzy. The freakish injury might end his promising career, as he has brain damage and hallucinations from a concussion.
His greedy agent (Tim Heidecker) encourages Cam to follow his dream despite the possibility of further health risks. Also encouraging him to go pro is his materialistic-minded older brother Drew (Geron McKinley) and widowed mom Yvette (Indira G. Wilson); while his girlfriend Jasmine (Heather Lynn Harris) loves being in the limelight his fame brings, but says she will back any decision he makes.
Cam accepts the invitation to train for a week with the celebrated veteran QB Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) on the pro team San Antonio Saviors, a team that drafted him to replace Isaiah when he retires. The GOAT QB is Cam’s childhood idol, whose team has won eight Super Bowls.
Cam goes by limo to Isaiah’s rural Texas desert compound for treatment, and finds there are many strange characters hanging around the facility.
The wacko film is hard to take seriously. It suggests that through the powers of some kind of weird religious experience after treated by Isaiah’s unethical high-strung football doctor (Jim Jefferies) with a series of injections, blood transfusions and painkillers, Cam develops X-ray vision.
Isaiah is at first friendly and encouraging but soon becomes hostile, indicating he does not want to be replaced by Cam at this time.
A bold Faustian statement is made how football players are desperate for fame and riches, and will sell their souls to gain such rewards.
Julia Fox plays Isaiah’s sultry influencer wife Elsie, who fashionably rolls with hubby’s celebrity lifestyle.
The movie’s title comes from a corny father-child scene where Cam Sr. asks Cam Jr. while they’re watching the Saviors on TV who he wants to be like, and the young kid (Austin Pulliam) looks at Isaiah on TV and shouts: “Him!”
The superficial flick, shot in 6 chapters, each chapter with a nonsensical story-line about following a macho culture, has nothing relevant to say about pro football being a violent sport that hasn’t already been said. Every time it makes a weird move, it fumbles (like during a training exercise, where for every missed pass Cam makes the hapless volunteer played by Chase Garland get hit hard in the face by a football released from a launcher machine).
The horror part is retched rather than scary and the sports part is dull rather than exciting.
REVIEWED ON 10/3/2025 GRADE: D
dennisschwartzreviews.com