HIM (2025) *

 

Directed by:  Justin Tipping

Starring:  Tyriq Withers, Marlon Wayans, Julia Fox

HIM is incoherent and utterly lost.  It is Whiplash but inexplicably given the horror treatment.  There are demonic visions and hallucinations, gore, blood spurting everywhere, and a half-assed ending which is supposed to tie everything together but results in even more confusion.  If HIM would've treated its material with even a Jacob's Ladder explanation, that would've made at least some sense.

But alas, HIM tells the story of Cameron Cade (Withers), a college quarterback standout who is in line to be drafted by his hometown San Antonio Saviors pro football team, whose current quarterback Isaiah White (Wayans) has won eight championships and is considered the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).  Cameron will have big shoes to fill, and even more so after he is attacked at practice and suffers a horrific head injury which threatens to derail his career before it even starts.

Cameron is invited by Isaiah to train with him for one week in a compound in the middle of the desert.  This is no ordinary compound, and the training takes on gory and violent dimensions as Isaiah determines whether Cameron has what it takes to succeed him.   But there are creepy vibes and goings-on which should have alerted Cameron to head for the exit and hitchhike home, but then we wouldn't have a movie, and this case that's just fine.  HIM soon degenerates into a sloppy mess in which we give up even attempting to figure out what's going on, and we find we don't care that much anyway.  

Cameron is a blank slate with little appeal.  Isaiah is a merciless taskmaster, and one question (among many) is how the Saviors, last year's champions, are able to draft number one overall and snatch Cade.  Maybe they're trading up and found a real sucker as a trade partner.  The movie never explains, not that it has much practice at that.  The ending is a gore fest and then cuts to a black screen where the credits begin rolling.  What the hell just happened?  I assume the movie is saying you have to sell your soul to Satan to be the GOAT.  I suggest that anyone wanting to be the GOAT at anything should be subjected to watch HIM.  If you can stomach that, then that's sufficient.