HIM review (2025) first, second and third round bust

November 1, 2025 Jeffrey Lyles HIM, Jim Jefferies, Julia Fox, Marlon Wayans, Tim Heidecker, Tyriq Withers

HIM is like too many rookie phenoms — it’s full of potential with an intriguing premise but ultimately fails to deliver and becomes yet another horror/thriller bust.

That’s especially disappointing since HIM is produced by Jordan Peele, who’s had an excellent track record with Get Out, Us and Nope. At least Peele’s directorial resume doesn’t get stained from HIM. That unfortunate credit goes to director/co-writer Justin Tipping, who might not enjoy a lengthy full-length feature directorial career after this one.

HIM focuses on Cam (Tyriq Withers), a highly touted college star quarterback preparing to ascend to the top of the professional football league. Just before the draft, Cam gets assaulted by a masked assailant, which throws some doubt as to his readiness for the draft. Cam grew up on football. His father (Don Benjamin) was a big fan of superstar QB Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans, Air) and used him as a measuring stick for Cam as he embarked on his path to becoming a Hall of Fame quarterback.

The pressure of the moment rattles Cam, who gets a second chance to impress the ownership of the league’s biggest dynasty, the Saviors. With Isaiah set to wind down his storied career, a successor needs to be tapped, and the Saviors think Cam could be their redeemer. Screenwriters Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers and Tipping aren’t subtle with the religious allegories, which Tipping triples down on with various imagery that seems to suggest the opposite of Saviors.

Isaiah opens up his palatial training center to make sure Cam can measure up. Cam is excited about the idea of training with the greatest of all time, or GOAT, but quickly learns that Isaiah’s success might come from his demented and eccentric training methods.

With this setup, it seemed like HIM could be a more sinister, twisted version of Any Given Sunday peeling back deeper levels on the sacrifices professional football players make to become the very best.

Instead, Tipping opts to take the film in several weird directions.

The biggest problem with the film is that it’s weird for the sake of being weird. Not to unnerve viewers or consistently keep them on edge. It’s just peppered with wacky imagery and nonsensical dialogue just to be unpredictable. And that’s before the fever dream final act that’s too ludicrous to even attempt to make some sense of, which would assume anyone could.

Tipping also opts for a very disorienting style of editing with far too many quick cuts. He also leans into gimmicky shooting styles like an X-Ray type perspective to show bodies being affected by high-impact hits.

Isaiah’s wife, Elsie (Julia Fox), is an influencer of some acclaim with bleached eyebrows that serve no purpose other than being visually distracting. Elsie is positioned as somewhat of a tempter for Cam, introducing him to temptations and realities he’d never experienced.

Withers has a solid screen presence and it’s not hard to envision him becoming a relatively bankable box office star. That won’t be the case from his 2025 films, which were two of the year’s worst with I Know What You Did Last Summer and this one.

Wayans delivers a “who knew he had this in him?” kind of performance. Typically, sticking to a reliable comfort zone of comedies, Wayans shows he can handle himself just fine playing a layered darker character.

The real fun in Wayans’ performance is how he keeps Isaiah so unpredictable. In some scenes, he’s Cam’s big brother offering him sage advice that will help him have a lasting career. Then in a blink, Wayans makes Isaiah cruel with a demented, loose cannon streak where there’s no telling what he will say or do.

If anything, HIM shows that Wayans needs some meatier roles. Based on what he shows here, with the right project and filmmakers, Wayans could cap a career revitalization with some award hardware. That won’t come from HIM, but it does provide a stand up and take note of Wayans’ versatility.

There’s very little great with HIM and the just absurdly over the top final act finds every possible rail to hop over on its way to irrelevance.