Sacrifice. What steps are you willing to take?
“HIM,” directed by Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele, shows exactly what lengths people go to make sacrifices. The movie combines football with a psychological horror, a genre Peele is known for—but ultimately fails to meet expectations and doesn’t live up to the hype created with his name attached. The result is a fever dream that veers in multiple directions before abruptly ending.
(Spoilers for “HIM” ahead.)
The film follows Cam Cade (Tyriq Withers), a football prodigy pushed into the sport by his father. Cade grows up idolizing the San Antonio Saviors, a team in the fictional USFF (a stand-in for the NFL, since the movie didn’t secure league rights).
In the championship game, his idol, quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), suffers a violent and career-ending injury while scoring the game-winning touchdown. Cam’s father tells him that real men are willing to make sacrifices.
As Cam grows up, he becomes a rising star, positioned as the potential successor for White, who remains the quarterback of the Saviors, winning eight championships while also having the title of the “GOAT.”
While training for the league combine, Cade is attacked by someone wearing a goat costume, confusing anyone in the audience with the complete randomness of the scene. The attack splits his head open, causing an injury that could be pivotal to his career.
This doesn’t stop Cam from attending the combine; motivated to pursue the Saviors’ QB role, despite the risk of permanent brain damage. After not playing in the combine, Tom, Cam’s agent, reveals to him that Isaiah is considering retirement and has offered Cam the chance to train for a week at a remote desert compound to prove himself a worthy successor.
Cam and Isaiah work through seven different days of lessons, with each day upping the intensity. On Day two, Cam is forced into a drill where he must quickly fire a pass off to a receiver before a two-second timer runs out. If the timer runs out, another receiver off to the side is drilled in the face with a football, drawing blood each time, to the point where it completely knocks him out.
This is where the film takes a leap into an overall fever dream. What Cam doesn’t know is that he’s secretly been receiving shots of Isaiah’s blood from the athletic trainer of the Saviors, where he was led to believe it was an energy booster, while he also experiences frequent hallucinations of different masked figures, which he attributes to his concussion.
Once Cam reaches the end of his training, he’s invited to a secret party to meet the Saviors’ owner. Cam is warned to “run” by Marco, the team doctor, before he exits the screen. While meeting with the owners, Cam is handed a drink, one that resembles red wine, but is instead again the blood of Isaiah.
This results in Cam passing out, disorientedly waking up to find Marco’s head severed from his body in a plastic-lined room, showing the idea of a human sacrifice.
The final act is where the film is completely thrown together. Cam finds Isaiah watching a video of cheering fans. Isaiah confesses that he comes from a lineage of manufactured “Greatest of All Time” (GOAT) players, each granted enhanced abilities through ritual blood transfusions passed down from one victor to the next. He tells Cam that only one can inherit the title, and they must fight to the death. After a brutal struggle, Cam kills Isaiah, bludgeoning him with a helmet.
Stepping out of the room, Cam enters a football field where he encounters the Saviors’ owners and Tom, all wearing animal masks. They hand him a contract, explaining that Cam’s father arranged for him to become the next GOAT. The earlier masked attack, they reveal, was staged to draw him to the Saviors.
Cam refuses to sign. In a violent frenzy, he kills everyone.
My thoughts:
It’s simple: the film leaves you confused about where it’s heading, but not in a good way. I entered the theater with high hopes, expecting a story that truly leaned into the horrors of football while exploring Satanic rituals and the theme of sacrifice.
Instead, the film largely abandoned the football angle and leaned heavily into the satanic side. To its credit, the cult-like parody was visually striking and effectively unsettling, but it came at the expense of the unique sports-horror premise the movie seemed to promise.
The performances were outstanding, with Tyriq Withers playing his role as Cam Cade perfectly. The most surprising performance in the film was by Marlon Wayans. Wayans, a known comedic actor from the cult classic “White Chicks,” delivered a very unique role in a horror film and did so impressively.
However, the film offers two unique qualities that almost save its overall performance. Most scenes rely on the film’s strong camera work, which consistently displays several symbols that can be difficult to interpret, especially given the settings.
The cinematography makes the movie stand out, every time Cam takes a hit, the film instantly shifts to an X-ray-like quality, showing what’s happening to his head as he endures trauma and illustrating the progression of his durability throughout the film.
The ending only added to the frustration. While it leaves you thinking, it feels rushed and unsatisfying, one of those abrupt thriller finales that provokes more irritation than enjoyment, leaving you walking out of the theater disappointed.
