Movie: Him
Release Date: Sept. 19, 2025
Director: Justin Tipping
Runtime: 1 hour, 36 minutes
Genre: Horror
Rating: D
In football, style points don’t win games. You can have a flashy uniform, a hyped-up entrance and a crowd roaring your name, but if you can’t move the ball downfield, it’s all for nothing. "Him", directed by Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele, is the cinematic equivalent of a team that looks incredible during warm-ups but falls apart when the game begins. It’s a movie that oozes style, but when it comes to substance, it fumbles hard.
The story follows Cam (Tyriq Withers), a promising young quarterback whose career is threatened by a devastating injury. Just when his dreams appear to be over, salvation arrives in the form of Isaiah (Marlon Wayans), a soon-to-be-retired star quarterback who offers Cam a lifeline: train with him at his private, secluded compound, and maybe he can rebuild his body, his career and his legacy. But once Cam sets foot into Isaiah’s carefully curated football retreat, it becomes clear that this boot camp is less about conditioning drills and more about psychological warfare. The week-long training regimen quickly unravels into something sinister, and Cam finds himself in the middle of a game he never signed up for.
On paper, this premise feels like a touchdown. Football, with its rituals, hierarchies and cult-like devotion, is fertile ground for horror. The idea of exploring the sport’s near-religious hold on fans and players alike is promising, especially with Peele’s name attached to the project. At its best, "Him" flirts with these ideas, showing us how ambition, faith and identity can be manipulated under the guise of mentorship. Unfortunately, the movie can’t stick to its game plan. Instead of digging deep into those themes, it resorts to shallow symbolism and empty gestures that feel more like a trick play gone wrong than a winning strategy.
Still, the film deserves credit for its craftsmanship. Cinematographer Kira Kelly’s work is easily the MVP. Her use of harsh contrasts in lighting underscores the push-and-pull dynamic between Cam’s optimism and Isaiah’s menace. Reds dominate the palette, saturating the frame until every shot feels like it’s bleeding tension. The production design, equally controlled, lends the compound an eerie artificiality: part training camp, part cathedral, part cult headquarters. For a while, these visual choices trick the audience into believing they’re watching a film with as much depth as style.
But once you get past the surface-level spectacle, "Him" collapses before it can find its footing. The film clocks in at just above 90 minutes, and that short runtime leaves little room for character growth. Cam is framed as the young prodigy, Isaiah as the aging legend — more archetypes than characters, and the movie never lets them evolve beyond those outlines. Supporting characters barely register, serving as hollow mouthpieces for the film’s themes.
And those themes, unfortunately, are hammered home with little subtlety. Football-as-religion is not a new concept, but "Him" approaches it with brute force rather than finesse. We’re shown shrines to Isaiah, a media interview framed like the Last Supper and endless dialogue where characters remind us repeatedly that the game is more than just a game. Symbolism this heavy-handed grows exhausting, especially when the film never builds toward a coherent point.
The plot fares no better. For the first act, there’s momentum; the setup has tension, the performances spark, and it feels like the story is driving toward something big. But as soon as Cam arrives at the compound, the narrative loses its footing. Scenes drag without payoff, subplots appear and vanish without explanation, and the climax feels rushed, leaving more questions than answers. What should be a nail-biting fourth quarter instead feels like a sloppy scrimmage, ending with the audience staring at the scoreboard wondering what just happened.
Wayans is the film’s saving grace. Known more for comedy, Wayans sinks into the role of Isaiah with unnerving commitment. His performance balances quiet, manipulative charm with explosive, unpredictable rage. At times, he feels like the only player on the field giving 110%. Withers does solid work as Cam, though the script doesn’t give him much room to show nuance beyond confusion, anger and fear. Their dynamic should have carried the film as mentor and protégé locked in a psychological chess match, but the writing never capitalizes on their chemistry.
As a horror film, "Him" is almost shockingly tame. The few attempts at jump scares are predictable, the gore is minimal, and the sense of dread evaporates the more time we spend at the compound. For younger viewers or those completely new to the genre, it might deliver a chill or two. But for anyone with experience in horror, "Him" never manages to surprise, only repeat the expected.. You can see the scares coming a mile away.
In the end, "Him" is a game of missed opportunities. The film has the talent, the production value and the thematic potential to be a contender, but it never puts the pieces together. Instead, it settles for a messy, confusing final product that leaves the audience unsatisfied. Tipping clearly has vision, and there are moments where you can see the kind of film "Him" wanted to be, but vision without execution is just an empty playbook.