HIM(2025)(Review) - Gruesome Gazette

Last year, a football-centric horror film came out titled “HIM”. It was produced by Jordan Peele and had an interesting trailer. But once it was released, the word-of-mouth around it either fell towards negative criticism, or was just dismissed as a “meh” experience. So, with the Superbowl happening over the weekend, I figured it would be an appropriate time to give it go for myself.

“HIM” tells the story of Cameron Cade (played by Tyriq Withers), an extremely promising football player who has earned praise and accolades for his skills. Ever since he was a young child, he always admired one of the all-time best players, Isaiah White (played by Marlon Wayans), who was the star quarterback of the San Antonio Saviors. But Isaiah suffers a career-ending injury during a major game, so the world holds its breath as the next all-time greatest player rises to take the throne. From here, Cam is approached by Isaiah and offered a chance to be the G.O.A.T. To earn the title and opportunity, he must endure an intensive training session with him at his private residence. And what awaits Cam is a nightmare world of sacrifice & bloodshed.

Now, let’s start with the good things. The cinematography in this film is fantastic – it’s hallucinatory, sharp, and really sets a vibe that carries on even through the mundane things. Marlon Wayans’ acting here is absolutely show-stealing, with him playing his best dramatic role since ‘Requiem for a Dream’.

Unfortunately, that’s really all I have to say I liked about it.

The story itself is fucking dull. This feels like a horror film that was made for people who don’t usually watch horror. For example, if I told you this is a story of a character who is on a path to become “the G.O.A.T.”, would you care to guess what ends up happening? I bet you can. This film feels like it was made over a decade too late. It’s predictable and, honestly, boring. It’s completely a style-over-substance production, which can work, but it doesn’t here. The rest of the acting is fine, but Cameron Cade is a boring, uninteresting character that we don’t really know enough about to really invest in his journey. He feels like someone who lacks any agency and thoughtlessly goes from point A to point B, doing whatever he’s instructed to do. Even the finale, which is set up to be a shocking revelation, I couldn’t tell what the fuck Cam even thought about any of it.

We also meet new characters throughout who I don’t even remember naming. The film is heavy-handed with its religious imagery, the themes around mob-mentalities and blind followers, and again… the idea of being “the G.O.A.T.” I’m honestly baffled what Jordan Peele saw here and felt strong enough to be a producer on, because this feels like an idea a High Schooler would come up with and think it’s so profound… but we’ve already seen hundreds of movies like this before. Yes, perhaps not as beautifully or creatively shot… but everything else is just dull.

It’s a beautiful movie, absolutely, but that’s about it. The hallucinatory imagery is cool to watch, but when it’s slapped over a bland story with artificial-feeling characters, then who really gives a shit? This is one of the few times where I not only understand why most audiences hated this film, but I’m sort of there with them.

1/5

“HIM” is currently streaming on Peacock, Amazon Prime, and VOD services.

‘Til Next Time,
Mike Cleopatra