- Julia Fox, Marlon Wayans, Tim Heidecker
- October 3rd 2025
- 96
- Justin Tipping
An up-and-coming American football quarterback spends a week training at the remote compound of his hero Isaiah White.
Marlon Wayans is best known for his work in comedies, so brace yourselves, you’re about to see a whole new side to him in the sports psychological horror HIM.
The horror, produced by Get Out‘s Jordan Peele, stars I Know What You Did Last Summer‘s Tyriq Withers as Cameron Cade, an up-and-coming American football player whose career trajectory is derailed by a significant head injury.
After his recovery (but not long enough), the San Antonio Saviors express an interest in signing him as their new quarterback, replacing his hero and the GOAT, Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans). Before they sign off on the move, Cade is invited to spend a week training at White’s remote compound in the desert.
To put it mildly, White has a unique perspective on how to be the best and takes his training way too far.
HIM, directed by Justin Tipping, has an interesting concept and all the right ingredients to be a stellar sports horror.
Unfortunately, Tipping puts all his focus on the style, the unnerving atmosphere and the trippy visuals and forgets to tell a substantial story.
As solid as the premise is, it’s not enough to sustain a feature-length film, and it needed to be expanded upon; there had to be new developments and revelations and the characters needed to be fleshed out more. But this doesn’t happen.
Instead, we get a repetitive cycle – a wild training sequence, some expensive recovery process, and a weird hallucination – over and over.
There are barely any full scenes and it feels more like a music video than a movie at times.
The cinematography is excellent and there are a lot of memorable visuals here, but they needed to complement a substantial story rather than overcompensate for an empty one.
The horror is more in the unsettling atmosphere, not knowing whether Cameron’s creepy hallucinations are real or not, and White’s scarily unpredictable nature.
It becomes a full-on horror in the gory final act, which would have been awesome if it didn’t come out of nowhere. These moments need to be earned on a story and character level.
Withers is solid as the lead but he’s quite bland in comparison to Wayans, who is intense and unhinged and utterly captivating. He puts you on edge and you’re not sure what he’s capable of.
Tipping had a recipe for success on his hands with HIM, but he let his cool idea down by prioritising style over substance.
In cinemas from Friday 3rd October.
By Hannah Wales.
© Cover Media