Eat, Sleep, Football: Him, a Review
By Lily Coghlan
Against a montage resembling a Nike ad, consisting of men standing in front of dark backgrounds and looking menacing, Marlon Wayans proclaims: “Greatness takes more than talent and hard work. It’s about surviving the death of who you used to be.” If you’re thinking this seems a bit dramatic, then you’re not ready for the absurd horror film that is Him (2025), directed by Justin Tipping. The story follows college football quarterback prospect Cam Cade (Tyriq Withers) as he trains for the league combine with esteemed quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans). As he is mentored at a remote desert compound, Cam realizes that becoming a worthy successor to White will transform him in drastic ways. The film’s psychological and supernatural horror elements serve to reflect Cam’s deteriorating sense of self as he attempts to become the new “GOAT” (greatest of all time).
One allure of the film, heavily relied on in its advertising, is Jordan Peele’s credit as a producer. Director and writer of critically acclaimed social commentary horror films Get Out, Us, and Nope, many viewers went into Him expecting a similar exploration of Black identities. Instead, Him focuses more on hypermasculinity of male sports, perhaps leaving some audiences disappointed at its lack of commentary on the Black experience.
The film uses two tactics to thrill. The first is unsettling imagery, including x-rayed skeletons smashing into each other, as well as eerily lit rooms and hallways and copious amounts of blood. The other, more in-your-face tactic is the depiction of men’s strength and aggressive resolve as something terrifying. Almost every scene has at least one instance of a man screaming at the top of his lungs, which gets old very fast. In a scene that encapsulates the film as a whole, a red-lit Marlon Wayans screams, while straining every muscle in his body and violently pounding his chest, “I AM HIM! I AM FOOTBALL!” The film wants you to see it as a critique of the pressures put onto men, especially in sports, but the laughable ways in which male aggression is portrayed makes it fall flat.
The depiction of the violence and mental strain that comes with playing football serves as a warning against going too far in pursuit of greatness. The way that Cam and Isaiah work to pursue greatness lies in ritualistic methods taken up by previous football players in the line of GOATs. The characters use this term as a god-like status, but the fact that GOAT is deployed so generously in real life undermines its effectiveness in the film as the ultimate goal for male athletes. Referencing a special kind of blood used in rituals by previous GOATs, Wayans’ character says it’s “The one to bring the salvation to the people. Whoever has it... is the GOAT.” In combination with the cringe-worthy acting and ridiculousness of thinking about football in this supernatural life-or-death context, it’s very difficult to take this line, and the film itself, seriously.
While Him attempts to convey the dangers of masculinity, it fails due to its cheap use of men’s strength and the cult of masculinity as a fear tactic. It isn’t effective or frightening because, as the audience is well-aware, the scariest thing about football isn’t its potential to turn well-meaning college athletes into barbarous cult members, but rather its role in causing life-threatening brain damage. That’s way scarier, to me, than Marlon Wayans yelling for an hour and a half.
