By John Corrado
Him, the new football-themed horror movie from producer Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, is a prime example of a film that has some theoretically interesting ideas, but ultimately fails because they are so poorly executed.
The film follows a young football player named Cameron “Cam” Cade (Tyriq Withers), who is given the opportunity to play for his favourite team, the San Antonio Saviors, and be trained by his childhood idol, quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans).
Cam is brought to a compound in the middle of the desert, where he is not only put through the ringer of a gruelling training routine, but also witnesses strange rituals. This is your basic story about the student overtaking the master, but the whole thing gets muddled up in misguided attempts at religious symbolism.
Directed by Justin Tipping, Him could’ve been a football Black Swan, but basically nothing about it works. The themes feel poorly defined, the characters are paper thin, and the payoff doesn’t feel earned. The more allegorical aspects of the film make so little sense and are so poorly set up that it basically feels incoherent at times. It’s nearly impossible to tell what this movie is trying to be; is it a grounded look at darker aspects of football culture like traumatic brain injuries and blood doping, or a half-baked Jesus allegory?
There is very little of actual substance here, and despite only running just over ninety minutes, Him also drags. The film wastes a supporting performance from Wayans that could have been something, but just feels like another piece of this movie that isn’t quite there. Withers tries to commit himself to the leading role, but the script doesn’t give him enough to work with. Julia Fox also appears as a social media influencer, and she is basically playing herself, take from that critique what you will.
There are some interesting shots and stylistic moments courtesy of cinematographer Kira Kelly, including a few creative uses of x-ray imagery, that suggest Him could have been something, instead of the empty nothing that we got. It’s ultimately a major letdown, especially considering that Peele’s name is on this thing as a producer. It’s a far cry from the excellent and layered horror films that he has directed himself, that’s for sure.
Film Rating: ★½ (out of 4)
Bonus Features (Blu-ray):
The Blu-ray includes a number of deleted scenes and several featurettes. The package ships with a slipcover.
• Alternate Ending – “Zay’s Nightmare” (2 minutes, 13 seconds)
• Deleted End Credits Scenes – “Food or Freedom” (1 minute, 7 seconds)
• Deleted Scenes (Play All – 13 minutes, 19 seconds)
- Cheers (1 minutes, 13 seconds)
- Don’t Be a Mascot (6 minutes, 6 seconds)
- The Publicist (1 minute, 45 seconds)
- Fantasy Football (1 minutes, 36 seconds)
- Cam’s Discovery (2 minutes, 37 seconds)
• Becoming Them (9 minutes, 7 seconds): The actors talk about getting in shape for these roles, and taking on football culture.
• The Sport of Filmmaking (10 minutes, 10 seconds): Tipping discusses the themes and symbolism in the film, and some of the more creative filmmaking techniques that Kelly utilized, including putting a football helmet around the camera for POV shots.
• Anatomy of a Scenes – “A Diabolical Game of Catch” (4 minutes, 25 seconds)
• Anatomy of a Scenes – “Rebirth” (4 minutes, 53 seconds)
• Hymns of a Goat (4 minutes, 36 seconds): Composer Bobby Krlic talks about his score for the film, which is admittedly creative, and how it feeds into the intentionally overbearing sound design.
• Feature Commentary With Director/Co-Writer Justin Tipping
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