HIM Review - A Twisted Glimpse of Gladiatorial Glory on the Gridiron

Chase Gifford
Sep 18
4 min read

“Glory is sacrifice, glory is exhaustion, glory is having nothing left to give.” - N.D. Wilson

The subgenre of sports-horror is apparently not a widely explored area only featuring a few movies that actually meet the criteria of being both horror and sports themed. It seems like a kind of horror ripe for the picking. With a movie like HIM, the themes are universal and exploitative. It’s about blind sacrifice. Sacrifice at any cost and the toll required for this story is incalculable.

To achieve greatness requires everything. This is a hyperbolic statement of course considering everything means the very breath someone breathes. And therein lies the horror of it all. What if it wasn’t an exaggeration? What if the gatekeepers truly demanded everything of you and from you? To be an Olympian, to be a successful musician, to be a hall of fame athlete, it will require E V E R Y T H I N G. Do you still push forward? Is it worth what will inevitably cost the absolute most?

Goldman’s Dilemma was a question posed in the 1970s and 80s citing that over half of elite athletes said they would take a steroid that guaranteed them a gold medal but would also kill them within a one to five year period. Since this time that percentage has dropped drastically but it still proves a point. The pressures of achieving anything less than greatness is simply unacceptable for the most elite athletes. Their internal demands and external influences greatly inform these decisions. It begs the question – when is it enough? In HIM, it’s never enough.

HIM is a drastically extreme example of finding the line between greatness and cautionary tale and totally blurring it for the sake of immortality on the field. When the bar is raised, nothing less than overcoming it is acceptable.

Cameron Cade is a prime example of being a product of his environment. From his earliest years he was groomed to become the greatest American football player that ever lived. Lofty goals, especially for someone so young. As a grown man on the cusp of glory, Cade is beginning to wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze. His father is dead, there’s always an inordinate amount of fake friends around him and his physical condition is tenuous at best. Does he continue to push forward? Of course he does. Because anything less than preeminence is inadmissible. And he has the perfect path to achieve such an imposing mindset. Isaiah White is a lot of things. But when he’s on the field he is nothing short of perfect. As the QB for the San Antonio Saviors he is Him. He is the G.O.A.T. A title Cade will reach for in ways he never could have anticipated until he met his idol, Isaiah White. In the eyes (and blood) of White, glory is either bestowed upon you or given to the man next to you. His methods will prove to be… unorthodox, to put it sanely. Will Cade follow? Everything has led to this but what if it wasn’t worth the sacrifice?

Special attention must be given to the cinematography. However you feel about this movie, hate it or love it, the beauty it provides visually is undeniable. In the midst of its bizarre nightmare journey is a plethora of gorgeous imagery and exhilarating camera work. Kira Kelly is firing on all cylinders with HIM, even when the story is a bit aimless or outright nonsensical.

When 2025 began I never had “Marlon Wayans gives the performance of his entire career” on my bingo card but here we are. He is formidable and mysterious as Isaiah White. He’s combative and a total oddity. He is unpredictable and grotesque. He is a personification of achieving one’s dreams but at a cost so impossibly high it’s unthinkable. He is of course an exaggeration of real life athletes but the message he brings remains wholly authentic. Where is the line and are you willing to cross it? Even if it means unimaginable sorrow down the line? Wayans as White is a horrifying example of the extraordinary becoming something unrecognizable and unsightly.

Tyriq Withers as Cameron Cade is a sheep become wolf starting his new journey alongside White as a cornered, scared farm animal. He evolves, or devolves depending on who you ask, and becomes an aimless heathen contorting into the wolf who will be consumed by rage where determination once lived. He has become the cautionary tale. By the story’s end, Cade and White will face off against one another in a battle for the title of HIM and it will prove to be a dismaying, extraordinary, and abhorrent experience that will change both of them forever and in ways they never could have imagined. Especially Cade, still in a cloud of confusion and distress.

HIM could have gone in a lot of different directions with its themes. It chose what I can only imagine as being the most confounding and exceptionally brutal path possible. It has many moments that feel off-putting and downright out of place. It can feel bizarre simply to be outlandish with little accomplished as a result. Maybe I was blinded by its shiny parts and the buckets of blood and scattered violence throughout and admittedly I can be a sucker for those things. But I think enough of it works to be an entertaining, albeit disquieting experience that provides risks when it counts, risks when it’s a bit unnecessary but perhaps most importantly it never wavers out of fear of going for the extreme every time.

Marlon Wayans’ performance is worth the price of admission alone. He is a force of evil perseverance that makes you question every athlete with the proclaimed title of G.O.A.T. and how exactly they became so extraordinary. Was it earned or were they chosen? You may not want to look behind that particular curtain if this is what awaits. Some mysteries should remain in the dark.