Jordan Peele’s journey through Hollywood over the past couple of years has been an interesting one. Bounding off the surprise mega success that was Get Out, he became our go-to guy for horror with social themes overnight. You may have seen his name plastered all over advertisements for HIM. Despite this, he is not the director, but just the producer. Monkeypaw used a similar tactic with the 2021’s Candyman reboot directed by Nia DaCosta. There are still people to this day who believe that Peele directed that project. Though you won’t see him front and center in the trailers, HIM is directed by Justin Tipping, who has mostly worked in television until now. However, like most projects under Peele’s banner, this still promises to examine American culture and race through a horror lens, this time focusing on Americans’ favorite pastime: football.
We follow Cameron “Cam” Cade (Tyriq Withers), an up-and-coming football star who is determined to carry on the mission his deceased dad wanted for him: becoming the greatest player of all time. His dreams are shattered by a brain injury that makes him a liability for any team to take on. But Cam gets a last-minute save from the San Antonio Saviors, who are willing to give him a chance to participate in their combine. What’s more, the training camp is with football legend Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), Cam’s idol. While seemingly normal at first, the training camp quickly goes sideways as the tests Cam receives become increasingly strange and cult-like, making him question his sanity and his strength.
It’s an understatement to say that Withers and Wayans save this movie from itself. The version of this film that had weaker actors is a complete disaster and would not be worth watching. Withers has an emotional vulnerability that really shines through the screen. The themes of toxic masculinity and living up to the ghosts of your past are more seen purely in his performance than in the writing itself. Cam, as written, is barely a protagonist as much as a punching bag used by the writers to make a point. It’s a testament to his talent that he was able to breathe any life into his role. Same with Wayans, whose performance is genuinely unsettling and impressive, but as a villain, he’s just poorly written. There’s no internal motivation for Washington besides just being evil and erratic, and when the full machinations are revealed, it’s a huge letdown. This is one of those cases where what’s really going on is pretty obvious, but its treated like a mystery. If you’ve seen the trailers and know the vibe of Peele’s brand, you can probably figure out where everything’s going 15 minutes in.
The problems with HIM obviously start with its producers and director. This is a solid story with completely mangled execution. There are many themes touched on, such as toxic masculinity and generational trauma, and it questions the quasi-religious energy Americans have around football. The only issue is that it doesn’t seem to have anything to say on the matter. The themes are visually apparent, but story-wise, you’re often left wondering what’s going on. Besides being about football, the movie has no clear idea of what it wants to be. Abstract, weird, and non-sequitur scenes are common in horror, but HIM seems dedicated to them.
Taken individually, there are no bad scenes in the film. The issue is that they don’t tie together. It feels like they filmed a half-finished script that they said they would fix in post — and then proceeded to make it worse in post. There have to be six or seven key scenes that were supposed to tie everything together, but are missing. If that isn’t the case, then this is simply one of the most confusing screenplays ever written. We jump from location to location and plot line to plot line fast and jarringly. People seemingly die in one scene and are back in the next. Sometimes, from one scene to the next, a character will act completely differently with no explanation. The most jarring example is Washington’s wife, Elsie White (Julia Fox), who truly appears to be a different person with a different job every time she’s on screen. Again, there’s no revelation as to why this is. It’s just weird. By the time you’re halfway through, you’re exhausted and confused, and it doesn’t get any better, even with all the blood, guts, and glory that is the third act. The movie hasn’t given you a world to care about, so it doesn’t land. Luckily, the quality of everything else never dips, but a good aesthetic can only take you so far when everything else feels like a C-tier Netflix flick.
The seeming inability to be a consistent narrative does lead to some interesting choices. There are so many amazing sets and costumes. I would go as far as saying that the makeup and costuming are Oscar-worthy in terms of creativity. There’s one scene that looks like the ESPYs if it took place in the Dune universe. Did it make any sense it looked like that? No. But if I can’t understand what’s happening, at the very least, make it visually striking. However, this only highlights the issue with the movie’s overall direction. There doesn’t seem to be any purpose behind most of the choices besides “it looked cool.”
HIM is a film you want to like. There’s so much good craft, from the cinematography to the costuming, that you want to give it a pass. But by the time it’s over, the whole thing just feels empty, and it unintentionally serves as a lesson as to why character development is important to storytelling. It’s a really simple story that at some point got out of the hands of the people who made it. It’s just trying to achieve too much in an hour and a half, even if all of it is visually appealing. You don’t need a movie to explain everything by the end, but when it’s over, it at least needs to make sense. HIM fails at this very simple task. I could see this being fun schlock for the horror fans, and it could even have a cult following in that community. But if you’re looking for the smart mix of horror and social commentary that Peele is known for, this may just be one of the worst versions of his formula we’ve seen yet.
Rating: Didn’t Like It
HIM is currently playing in theaters
You can read more from Jeffery Rahming, and follow him on Letterboxd