Him
There is no victory without sacrifice, something Cameron Cade has had drummed into him since childhood, playing football with his overbearing and demanding father, watching the San Antonio Saviors on television in the final game of the season as the star quarterback, Isaiah White, makes the winning touchdown but suffers a catastrophic injury, the Greatest Of All Time brought low by human frailty.
Fourteen years pass, Cameron’s father now dead and he himself a fast-rising star when he is attacked on the field late one night, his doctor recommending extended recuperation to ensure there are no complications from the head injury but his agent presenting an opportunity to train with White, potentially becoming the new quarterback for the Saviors if he can prove himself, an offer which will not come his way again.
The worlds of horror and sports films generally not overlapping, perhaps Teen Wolf and Swimfan while Buffy Summers and her squad cheer from the sidelines, director Justin Tipping casts Tyriq Withers as Him, creating a world where American football has become the modern equivalent of the gladiatorial games, of screaming fans who cheer when blood is spilled on the field yet whose obsession cannot hold a candle to the burning fire of the players who seek the glory.
Isolated from family and friends and the hangers-on who wanted a piece of the action, Cameron is pushed and tested by Isaiah (Marlon Wayans), his temper stormy as he alternately builds up then tears down the man who may be his protégé or may be his successor and his demands unreasonable, ice baths and massages giving way to injections, blood transfusions and extreme motivational tools, Cameron forced to watch as others pay the price for any marginal failure.
Isaiah’s eccentric wife Elsie (Julia Fox) with her marble eggs and crystals hosting parties for invited guests from invested parties with strange new age overtones, Cameron is haunted by things shimmering on the edge of the shadows, horned figures, the team mascot the embodiment of totems of old, stolen prizes on stolen land, while at the edge of the compound a cult of crazed fans has sprung up led my Marjorie (Naomi Grossman) who will not tolerate Isaiah being replaced.
An uneven film, the handover from the heavy sports drama to the overt horror of the finale abrupt even though it has been signposted throughout, Him still has much to say about masculinity, determination and dominance, a male equivalent of the impossible standards and expectations of The Substance, of those who push those who have talent to ride their coat tails, of the rituals of modern sports, an industry built on falsehood and presentation and control, Cameron the latest player in an old game where the rules say the only thing that matters is winning and the GOAT must inevitably be sacrificed.
Him is currently on general release
