Him

I once wished Hollywood made more movies like this. And after walking out of the theater, I’m pretty sure they’ll do the exact opposite now.

Set in the competitive field that is professional football, Him follows an up-and-coming rookie quarterback named Cameron “Cam” Cade (Tyriq Withers) as he trains with the aging superstar of the San Antonio Saviors, Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), the current starting QB on the team, in the hopes of upping his game in a way that would make Cam the undisputed G.O.A.T. of the league. Essentially training his replacement at his personal sports compound in the middle of nowhere, Isaiah is in curiously great shape for his age—a perfect athletic specimen, even—making Cam all the more motivated to appease Isaiah during their harsh training regimens. Striving to become as good a player as Isaiah inexplicably continues to be, even after a gruesome injury almost cut the star’s career short, Cam soon becomes concerned with the increasingly violent ways Isaiah pushes their sessions to the limits. Suspecting that Isaiah isn’t exactly using traditional methods to become the player he was always meant to be, it soon becomes clear that something terrifying is driving Isaiah’s success, forcing Cam to choose between his love for the game and his own safety. They say the devil is in the details, but for Cam, the devil is in every bead of sweat, drop of blood, and broken bone, and if he’s to become the greatest quarterback of all time, selling his soul might be a fair price to pay for it.

Based on that synopsis alone, Him sounds like an intriguing, original horror/thriller, right? Too bad it kinda isn’t. Sounds like there would be some wild demonic shit that goes down, giving us the bloody good time we supposedly came to the theater to see, right? Nah, it’s all kinda tame in the end, actually. What about a deep dive into the mind of a man who would stop at nothing—literally nothing—to achieve his goals to become the best of the best? Keep on dreaming, people.

What I realized after watching Him is that it doesn’t really care what we came to see. And while I was most definitely disappointed with the final film, I’m more concerned about how it managed to fumble a concept that should have made it an instant sleeper hit, or, at the very least, an eventual cult hit among the right nerd crowds. Unfortunately, neither of those things is, or ever will be, the case, as Him makes mistake after rookie mistake that left me wanting for more than it was ever willing to give.

But I’m being too harsh too soon. I want to commend Him on a few things that I liked and thought it did relatively well. Sure, some of its storytelling isn’t up to snuff, but the same can’t be said about Him’s stylish filmmaking and creepy horror trappings. Full of gorgeous visuals, a solid soundtrack, a great hook, surprisingly complementary acting by both Withers and Wayans, and a few standout moments of violence and terror that I enjoyed seeing play out, Him’s slow-burn story had me in the first half, and easily got me excited for what might be coming next. But the longer things dragged on—and then rushed at breakneck pace to a bonkers conclusion that felt too little too late—the clearer it became that Him wasn’t going to be, for lack of a non-punny comparison, him.

Coming across as flat and uninteresting at times, the script felt like it was treading water as it continuously stopped short of realizing its full potential in ways I truly don’t understand. Feeling like it only scratched the surface of the themes its script sets up, i.e., how power corrupts, ambition kills, and toxic masculinity poisons, Him stumbles at almost every turn simply because it doesn’t go far enough with anything it puts into motion, resulting in a movie that feels like it doesn’t go anywhere at all. And while the creepier elements of this film work well alongside the overall tone and mood of it all, pretty visuals and exceptional acting just aren’t enough to fool me into calling this one a success.

Still, I liked Him, maybe if only because of the potential it had as a genuinely unsettling horror flick tinged with supernatural trappings, telling a relatable story about how far someone would go to achieve greatness. But after finding myself waiting for the other metaphorical shoe to drop when it came to the actual plot of the film, I realized Him wasn’t interested in exploring its own ideas as much as I was, leaving this one hanging somewhere in the middle of being a movie that’s mildly entertaining at best and frustratingly empty otherwise.