Walking out of a screening of HIM the day after an NFL game in Croke Park with the streets still teeming with American tourists in their team’s colours was uncanny timing. It’s the almost religious devotion to the sport that HIM seeks to explore as the mantra of the main character puts it – ‘Football, Family, God’ in that order.
Directed and co-written by Justin Tipping (Kicks), and produced by Jordan Peele, HIM arrives with built-in hype and traces of his influence are there - the stylish cinematograph, big scale production and trippy sci-fi narrative of Nope and the high concept social commentary of Get Out and Us.
Tyriq Withers (his second horror role this year, following I Know What You Did Last Summer) stars as Cameron Cade, a rising college quarterback star groomed as the next face of the fictional pro team, the San Antonio Saviours. Cameron is seen as a successor to Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), his late father's football idol and aging star of the Saviours. But after a brutal head injury on the eve of the scouting combine, Cameron finds himself at an intensive bootcamp in a secluded ranch run by Isaiah and his influencer wife, Elsie (Julia Fox). Here, the motif really takes off and things take a grisly turn. As Cameron crosses the boundaries into the camp, we see Isaiah’s zealots throw themselves at the car and wail in sorrowful rage at the anticipation of the end of their leader’s reign. “He died for us, so I play for Him,” Isaiah decrees. Football isn't just faith - it's salvation but there’s a hefty and brutal price to pay. HIM leans hard into this theme, portraying football as a blood-soaked religion, and the players are both revered deities and sacrificial lambs to the industry. Scenes cut between Christian iconography and occult symbolism peaking with the rather hackneyed scene of Cameron sitting Christ-like at a Last Supper-themed photoshoot surrounded by his followers of media, staff and fans.
The film is visually striking, with gruesome body horror elements and surreal flourishes. It starts with a young wide-eyed Cameron looking away from the TV screen as Isaiah screams in agony from a brutal leg injury in a championship game. His father turns his son’s head back to the screen and recites “No guts, no glory.” This is how it feels in the audience at times, reluctant witness to the inherited cycle of sacrifice and violence portrayed in HIM.
The supporting cast does much of the heavy lifting in the film. Tim Heidecker and Jim Jefferies bring surprising nuance as Cameron’s agent and Isaiah’s team doctor, while Julia Fox plays a character not a huge departure from her own personal brand as the vacuous, fame hungry Elsie. Wayans performance at times tips over into melodrama – think early Wesney Snipes on steroids, and the script doesn’t give Withers enough substance to fully sell Cameron’s transformation from prodigy to martyr.
The film ends up straddling genres - part slasher, part body horror, part sports drama - without fully delivering on either. HIM is visually compelling, occasionally provocative, and bolstered by a strong supporting cast. It may be aiming to be Any Given Sunday meets The Substance (for men) but its muddled message and theatrical flourishes undermine its more incisive commentary.
In cinemas from 3rd October 2025.
