My answer wasn’t entirely true. I knew that I’d just watched the worst movie of 2025 so far. “HIM” made absolutely no sense, produced zero scares, and used so many different types of symbolic imagery that I wondered if its three screenwriters employed a random plot generating software tool. When a movie about a football player who wants to be “the G.O.A.T.” features a jump-scare where someone appears out of nowhere to yell “Baaaaa!”, you have to wonder if you’re being punked.
I don’t usually mention producers, but I’m going to make an exception as a public service. The ads tell you that “HIM” is produced by Jordan Peele, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who helmed “Us,” “Nope,” and “Get Out.” This information leads you to believe “HIM” is a film of similar excellent quality, one that also might use horror and satire to comment on Black life. The film’s plot deals with professional football, a topic ripe for such an interrogation, so your assumptions would be valid.
Unfortunately, no such investigation befalls the wretched mess that director Justin Tipping co-wrote with Skip Bronkie and Zack Akers. Their plot about aging, though still active, 8-time championship-winning pro quarterback Isaiah White (a very miscast Marlon Wayans) tormenting his eventual replacement, Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers), had the potential to at least be creepy. But there are so many disparate plot elements thrown at us that nothing sticks, and no explanations were offered to help guide us through the muck.
I’m not implying that a horror movie needs to be coherent to deliver the chills—watch any J-Horror movie for proof that this concept can work. But “HIM” doesn’t even try to be scary. It’s too busy bombarding us with nonsensical, quickly flashed images that divulge nothing. There are also numerous closeups of footballs that are supposed to be ominous. Somebody should have told the filmmakers that a football spinning on the ground is only terrifying to the team that fumbled it.
Even worse are the constant Christian references that imply that being a quarterback is somehow akin to being God. Cade has a crucifix around his neck that the camera caresses like Mary Magdalene. White has a crucifix earring that we see multiple times. Hell, the damn team is called “The Saviors.” I knew Jesus was a Capricorn, but I had no idea He was a master of the West Coast Offense, too.
It doesn’t matter, because hardly any football is played in “HIM” despite a promising opening that evokes former NFL QB Joe Theismann’s horrific career-ending Monday Night Football injury. In a flashback, White is gruesomely injured on the field, leading to questions about whether he’ll return. He does, stronger than ever, and leads the Saviors to multiple championships in the fictional USFF League. A younger version of Cade is his biggest fan—when he grows up, he wants to be just like Isaiah White.
“That’s what champions do,” Cade’s soon-to-be-deceased father beats into his head. Champions win no matter what the cost. To honor his father, Cade works his way up to trying out for the Saviors, only to be sidelined when someone—or something—plants an ax in his scalp.
Despite having numerous staples in his head, Cade attempts to try out. He’s surrounded by Yvette (Indira G. Wilson) the most stereotypical Black mother I’ve seen outside a Tyler Perry movie, and the sleaziest white agent this side of HBO’s old comedy series, “Arli$$.” The latter is played by a bespectacled Tim Heidecker, the best thing in this movie.
In fact, everyone associated with the sport besides White is white: The team’s president, who gives Cade the opportunity to train with his star QB at White’s impenetrable desert fortress; the doctor who keeps injecting Cade with questionable drugs; and the Isaiah White groupies who somehow break into the aforementioned impenetrable fortress and try to crush Cade’s skull. Even White’s wife, Elsie (Julia Fox) is white, and covered in the same makeup used on “IT”’s murderous Pennywise the Clown.
Knowing this racial information, it’s easy to see why I thought this film would tackle how Black athletes are often undervalued by the NFL’s mostly white coaches and owners. If “HIM” is indeed an allegory based on that theory, it’s a massive failure. But then again, sometimes a bad movie is just a bad movie, and no extra thought should be given to it.
1/2 ★
HIM
Directed by Justin Tipping. Written by Tipping, Skip Bronkie and Zack Akers. Starring Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, Indira G. Wilson, Tim Heidecker. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 96 min. R (graphic violence, language, nudity, unscary footballs)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe’s film critic.