Review | “Him” misses the mark: a thriller that’s more fumble than fear
Illustration by Sami Seyedhosseini, Cartoonist
Spoiler alert! This review contains spoilers for “Him.”
As someone who is always excited for a psychological thriller/horror film with Jordan Peele's name on it (albeit only as a producer), I was shocked 20 minutes into the movie when I realized that it was going to be an unsatisfying watch. And worse, the only thing “horror” about it was the weird, metallic pink mascot that randomly appeared in dream sequences.
“Him,” directed by Justin Tipping, follows Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), an eight-time championship-winning quarterback for the San Antonio Saviors. As his career is coming to an end, it's time to crown the next GOAT of pro football. At the same time, Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers), a college football player who is on the path to go pro, experiences a serious (but not career-ending) injury, and teams are worried he isn't as valuable anymore. White, who had faced similar injuries in his own career, decides to train him and ensure he is ready to be the Saviors’ next star.
This training takes place in White’s creepy compound in the Texas desert, where we meet a lot of strange characters. Every day, the training gets progressively weirder. He ends up getting blood transfusions, encounters demons, and goes through extremely violent and aggressive drills. Cade has to then decide if the reward of being the greatest of all time is worth selling his soul to the devil, literally and figuratively.
The film attempted to explore a lot of the issues that the American Football industry, as well as any professional athletic industry, experiences. The strong fan culture in these sports forces these athletes to be just a body used for entertainment, and the film displays exactly that. Cameron Cade is injected and fed anything that means more optimization of his body, no matter what that means for him long term. This is definitely something we see in the industry today; the aim is to push athletes to their highest potential for as long as they can be utilized, regardless of the physical and mental cost.
We see many more of these mini-messages sprinkled throughout the film. More than half of NFL players identify as Black; however, 92% of NFL principal owners are white. Is there a message to be explored there? Cade decides to break the cycle in the film’s final scene, and even though the execution of this was absolutely ridiculous by having him decide to kill everyone on the field who, for some reason, are adorned in leather pig masks, the messages regarding modern-day racism definitely came through.
My issue with the film isn’t the message, because truthfully, I think it’s refreshing to have a film that doesn’t romanticize what these athletes go through, but highlights the bigger problems. My issue is that the film essentially spends an hour and a half employing scare tactics, none of which are particularly effective in evoking fear. The film should have been written as a drama, which would have made it more impactful and effectively conveyed the message. Instead, it took a horror approach by adding random hallucinations, where Cameron Cade sees figures, the mascot, and fans in dark hallways with what seem like 2010 photobooth filters on them.
The film addresses an issue in America that even those responsible may not recognize as a problem. It sheds light on matters that are often overlooked or dismissed by those in power in the sports industry, despite its significant impact on the players and their families. Yet, the film tried to be a sports version of “Get Out,” and no one was going to let that failed attempt slide.
