Released on Sept 19th, Zack Akers’, Skip Bronkie’s, & Justin Tipping’s film, Him, is a psychological horror that takes elements of a sports drama to create an enjoyable but also mind-bending hour and 36-minute experience. 

Him at its surface is a story about College Quarterback Star Cameron “Cam” Cade’s journey to being drafted, until a fatal injury to his head would lead to his draft stock tanking. Cam would then get a call for an opportunity to train with his childhood G.O.A.T and starting Quarterback for the Saviors, Isaiah Smith for a week. Seeming like Cam’s only option to reach the league, he takes this chance that he’d later regret. 

This premise and genre are what originally intrigued me about this film, since I’m not the biggest horror fan, but when made into a film about football the idea seemed particularly innovative. Despite the conflict, it somehow just worked. 

The reason this film works so well comes down to how the script was written. Again, from a surface level view, the movie is about football, but as we get deeper into the film, I understand that at its core, the movie has nothing to do with football at all. Instead, the film is more about sacrifice and how far one is willing to go to get want they want. I loved this as, instead of making the word “Him” be defined as the best or the G.O.A.T., it allows for “Him” to change person to person, depending on their willingness to sacrifice. This also helped show progression, as at first Cam is not willing to sacrifice as much as Smith has already to become “Him”. Eventually though, with Smith’s advice, Cam finds his own way to become “Him” by learning from the same mistakes of those in the past and creating his own path to greatness.  

I also very much enjoyed the allusions in the script to the twist ending and metaphoric language. I felt like this added a bit of mystery to the film, which made the experience more fun and kept me more engaged. 

This sense of mystery as a whole enhanced the incredible cinematography, which is built up by the meticulous shot composition and clever use of lighting. Starting from the very first scene, we get these visual elements of goats and other religious symbols that highlight the paranormal tones of this film. This, I very much enjoyed as there would be many scenes where your left thinking “was that real or was that all in his head?” Goat rather than representing the “Greatest of All Time” is also taken to represent evil in this film and is even worshiped by some. These religious elements I found reflect the feeling some sports fans have towards their favorite team, but in an exaggerated way.  

Some of my favorite shots of the film were the ones lit in way where we are viewing the scene from the perspective of someone who has a concussion, with the use of glare and accentuated colors. Others were scenes in an x-ray and thermal view, as they were not only beautiful visuals, but also a tool to show the strain that this game is taking on Cam. We also see this same message represented in the line used throughout the film “No guts, No Glory”.  

I found clever how the film had these motifs of, for one, making red more prominent as the film progressed and as Cam became “Him” until his character is completely covered in red by the final shot, finally embodying “Him”. Another motif I enjoyed was the use of darkness and light throughout the film since it reflected how Cam must first live in this darkness and mystery before the truth can be brought to light. 

Although the writing and cinematography work perfectly together to send these messages, what really ties this movie together is the incredible performance of the cast.

 Most notably, I found comedian Marlon Wayans’ portrayal of Cam’s mentor and adversary, Smith, to be brilliant. I say this because when Cam and Smith first meet Wayans portrays him as mentor trying to improve Cam for him to replace him one day, but what we don’t get to see yet is how much more Smith’s character really is. As the film goes on though, we get to see all these different layers that build up Smith, from being a mentor, jealous boyfriend, all the way to a sociopath. 

Not to mention the star of this film Tyriq Withers, who plays Cam expertly. Withers portraying Cam as this hesitant and genuine character leads to a great contrast to how Cam is when he finally embodies “Him”.  

The supporting cast were phenomenal as well, even though they did not get as much screen time as Withers’ and Wayan’s characters; their roles were still vital to the plot, so being able to see the passion they brought to their performances is something I really appreciated. 

Clearly there was a lot I liked about this film, but I feel like what this film did lack was a complete ending. The ending we got was open-ended, and while that is not inherently bad, the film ended feeling incomplete. An open-ended ending should be up for the viewers to decide what happened next, but this movie left too many questions unanswered for it to have ended the way it did. Instead of leaving you with an idea of what might have happened next, the abrupt ending leaves you feeling confused. 

In the end I did enjoy this film as the concept is something I’ve never seen done before and their execution is nearly perfect, but the ending holds it back a lot since I believe it does not matter how you start a film but how you finish it. The ending is the last thing the viewer takes home with them, so by leaving them confused it sets a bad impression on the film as a whole. Therefore, my overall rating of this film would be 8.8/10. 

8.8/10