Him (2025) [Film Review]: A Bold Football Horror That Fumbles Its Ambition

Movie Name: HIM

Director: Justin Tipping

Producers: Jordan Peele (executive)

Stars: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, Jim Jefferies, and more.

Rating: ★★⯪☆☆ (2.5 / 5)

Quick Snapshot — A sports-horror with provocative aims but muddled delivery

Football as ritual, horror as spectacle

Him wants to indict American football as a cult of violence and celebrity, folding that critique into a splatter-heavy, psychological horror. The concept is striking — a rising QB mentored by a mythic, morally compromised legend — but the film’s ambition outpaces its discipline.

Synopsis — Mentor, protege, and a desert compound of secrets

A young quarterback enters a haunted training ground

Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) is a generational college quarterback on the verge of superstardom. After a brutal head injury, he seeks rehabilitation at Isaiah White’s (Marlon Wayans) secluded desert compound — a shrine to a fallen GOAT. What starts as mentorship spirals into a ritualistic horror that fuses Christian iconography, occult overtones, and the brutal rituals of professional sport.

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What Works — Visual flashes and thematic bite

Stylish motifs and smart supporting turns

Director Justin Tipping deploys striking visuals — X-ray moments and religious tableaux that linger — and leans into disturbing set design to make the compound feel like a confessional turned slaughterhouse. Tim Heidecker and Jim Jefferies provide reliable, textured support, and Julia Fox adds unsettling glamour. The film does raise compelling questions about sacrifice, commodification, and the faith we place in athletic idols.

What Falters — Logic, casting, and tonal overreach

Too many conceits, not enough grounding

Problems emerge when the film’s critique requires buy-in from a sports world it never fully depicts. Key plot beats strain credibility (top QB prospects don’t operate like the movie assumes), and Marlon Wayans’s casting — hammy by design — often reads as a misfire rather than a provocation. The script trades subtlety for spectacle; once the body count rises, the emotional logic that might justify the carnage is thin.

Technical Notes — Style without sufficient soul

Strong craft, weak connective tissue

Cinematography and production design sell the movie’s ritualistic feel, and select visual choices are memorable. Yet editing and narrative structure fail to build the necessary empathy for Cameron’s arc, so the film’s final shocks land as theatrical gestures more than earned catharsis.

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Verdict — Ambitious concept, disappointing execution

A provocative premise that ultimately fumbles

Him is an intriguing experiment: a football horror that tries to make the sport look like religion and the locker room like an altar. It has moments of formal daring and solid supporting work, but uneven tone, implausible plotting, and a miscast central dynamic prevent it from being the sharp cultural critique it aspires to be. For viewers curious about genre experiments, it’s worth a look; for those seeking a coherent sports-horror with bite, this one’s a fumble.