Him Review

Credit - Monkeypaw/Universal

The rewards for those fortunate enough to play football at the highest levels are well-documented. The most prominent is the life-changing money, followed by the potential for you to become generationally wealthy if your play warrants that. Then, for roughly six months (including preseason and playoffs), people adopt a weekly ritual of organizing their lives to watch you play either in person or on TV. And last but not least, there’s the fact that you are competing with the best of the best. However, it all comes at a cost.

Him, the latest film from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, offers a look at that cost through a horror lens. In Him, emerging football star Cam Cade (played by Tyriq Withers) accepts the opportunity to train with his idol and all-time football great Isaiah White (played by Marlon Wayans) and go through a battery of “tests” in an effort to boost his fallen draft stock and eventually become “him”.

In its head, Him clearly aims to be a scathing critique of how football can ravage the bodies, minds, and souls of the black athletes pursuing the prosperity it offers. In reality, Him is more akin to the lower depths of an Illuminati fever dream than hard truth.

The acting in Him is by far its strongest part. In fact, it blesses us with a career-best performance from Wayans and a potential star turn for Withers. Their chemistry perfectly captures the teacher gaslighting the student beyond their limits theme at the core of Him. 

As White, Wayans is finally allowed to showcase the incredible range he has always possessed, yet never as appreciated by the masses as it should be. The dramatic chops Wayans flexes throughout Him, specifically his football monologue, are a marvel. That said, Wayans’s ability to convey his intensity at a level where he’s convincingly terrifying is the most impressive part of his performance. There were small glimpses of it in his Respect turn, but Wayans proves more than capable of playing the centerpiece of a good horror or thriller flick here. And with all of that going on, Wayans still doesn’t miss an opportunity to throw in the comedic talent that’s endeared him to us for four decades.

While it’s not the proving ground Wayans’s turn was, Withers does some showcasing of his own. He plays Cam with a naive innocence that’s the perfect counter to Wayans’s intensity and makes their relationship feel authentic.

Unfortunately, everything behind the camera fails Wayans’s and Withers’s efforts and ultimately damns Him. It’s the culmination of the hands behind the scenes doing so much to be profound that the point of it all gets lost.

The script, written by Skip Bronkie, Zack Ackers, and director Justin Tipping, starts with promise because both the traumatic mentor-mentee relationship and football are ripe for a horror retelling. In fact, 2014’s Whiplash and the true-life horror stories from former football players show they had gold with their premise. Despite having that set path to tell its story, the film loses steam quickly because Tripping, in his directorial role, allows the film to become far too abstract to convey its message effectively.

Instead of following a more grounded approach to the “lessons” and sacrifices Isaiah presents to Cam, Tipping becomes overindulgent with visual and sound effects that undermine the reality that athletes in Cam and Isaiah’s positions face. Him being a horror film does call for some illusions, but Tipping goes overboard to the point where the film becomes predictable and offers nothing in terms of depth.

While it does carry his name as a producer, it’s obvious that Him is not a Jordan Peele film. For all the promise its premise and co-leads provide, Him lacks the nuance to not only ground its scares in a way that keeps it connected to reality, but also conjure up any scares or deep thoughts at all. Wayans is at his absolute best and Withers gives a performance that will definitely have you excited for his future, but sadly they couldn’t save this one. No need to see this one in a premium format, if at all.