An up-and-coming star athlete finds himself descending into madness and potentially something darker when he goes for a football training retreat with the legendary champion he idolizes. 

This is an odd one, folks, even for a horror flick. Most of the film is a sendup of the cults of athletic fame that have a tendency to emerge around a shining superstar of a given profession – Dennis Rodman, Tanya Harding, Babe Ruth and countless others are examples of this phenomenon. But even amongst sports known to be exceedingly violent, like hockey, football and American football in particular is known to be absolutely brutal – to the players, their coaches and managers, even and perhaps most especially, to and among the unhinged fans. Pro football is well-known for being some of the harshest training around, and it is constant and unrelenting, with the physical regimen only being part of it, and the mental and emotional toil of being a star athlete with all that entails being the other part. Many would and have cracked under that kind of pressure, which doesn’t make them weak by any means, it makes them human. But there are some who can thrive under almost threatening adulation and live a life like a modern-day emperor, by becoming something other-than-human and monstrous, in their quest for fame and glory. And that is where we begin, with HIM. 

So mini Cameron Cade (Austin Pulliam) loves his dad, and football, and his favorite team is of course the San Antonio Saviors, with their quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) as his particular idol. Cam’s Marine dad Cam Sr. (Don Benjamin) idolizes the game of football, the life of the QB, and Isaiah White in particular, in the way Church idols are worshipped, with absolute fervent and genuine passion. Cam Jr. had it drilled into his head, quite literally in fact, at a very young age, that he could be the next Isaiah White. Now as a young man (Tyriq Withers) fresh off a fabulous college football run, his beloved father still a fairly recent loss, Cam has the pressure to perform like you would not believe, as he’s been selected to go and perform for the Combine. 

It’s interesting to note just how many religious terms and rituals are overlaid to the game of football inside the film. Even the term Combine, which in real-life football terms is usually an elite invite-only event where top college prospects perform physical and mental feats hoping to be drafted by the coaches and scouts in attendance, has its roots in medieval Church history. White himself at one point gushes zealously about a football catechism, the listing of “football, family, God” and in what order you do so as your commitment to the game, the world, the life. 

Even after getting clocked horribly by some Baphomet-looking-wannabe, hard enough to require a line of staples in his head, Cam is still doing everything expected of him. His mom (Indira G. Wilson) and his agent Tom (Tim Heidecker) and his girlfriend Jasmine (Heather Lynn Harris) are all trying to help him in their various well-meaning ways, but yes, they’re all just making it worse. Somehow, Cam has waded through all this nonsense, enduring parties and people all with a concussion, and has been picked up by the League, just as he’d hoped. Now, it’s off to Isaiah White’s own training compound out in the desert, for football boot camp the likes of which may give even Navy SEALS in training pause. 

You’d think Cam would at least protest or blink or something, when team doctor Marco (Jim Jefferies) starts dosing him on the reg with shots of mysterious dark red liquids, given footballs long long history of troubles with steroids and all kinds of other drugs. But no, ‘Zay is The Man, he wouldn’t do anything that shady, right? And then there’s Elsie (Julia Fox), Isaiah’s wife, all model-perfect and fashionable and edgy, with her thousand-yard Melania stare, she’s seen it all and frankly, being shocked and appalled all the time is just exhausting, honey. Which of course doesn’t stop her from attempting to warn Cam, about his own limitations and the actual different world and giant-sized shoes he’s attempting to step into, or trying to seduce his mightily confused ass in vulnerable moments either. Just like your expected sports megastar trophy wife should. 

So White has gone from football megastar celebrity out there, to the High Priest of The Game here in his little private compound, where there seems to be odd stuff beginning, or rather continuing, to happen. Shadows writhe on the walls, the disciples White calls “men with nothing to lose” are joyfully getting themselves beat to literal pulps in order to help Cam with his training, and those vulnerable moments in the ice baths turn into confessionals at gunpoint. The High Priest seems willing to train his successor in much the same way he himself was trained, but only up to a point, as there can be only one HIM, and no mentor wants to be actually literally replaced by his student. 

An odd running gag throughout the film is that both of these men, the High Priest and his successor, both kept going on about wanting to be “the G.O.A.T.” or “Greatest of All Time”, all while participating in football-fueled Satanic rituals, where goats get sacrificed often. 

Every person here in ‘Zay’s training compound is attempting to impart their own hard-won wisdom to Cam, each from their own perspective and spheres of interest, and yet not one person seems to have Cam’s best interests at heart. Elsie seems well aware that her position in the Saviors’ world hinges on Isaiah’s life and is thus determined to see Cam persevere, with her help of course. There was never any doubt that the owners of the Saviors, those old powder-white men who believe themselves to be masters of the universe, were and are willing to sacrifice anything and anyone, in order to keep their legacy thriving. Even Marco, the exhausted team doctor who seems well aware that there’s something far more nasty than gladiator-like football training going on here, dutifully shot Cam up repeatedly with Isaiah’s blood and regurgitated the holy football rhetorics, until the fateful night of Cam meeting the Saviors’ owners. For in a cult of fanatics of the game, the way of life that is football, who also happen to be Satanic practitioners, the only way through is the very final act of sacrifice, clearing the old to pave way for the new, in blood and shrieking triumph, “I’M HIM!” 

The final act of HIM is a truly psychotic scene that blurs the lines between reality and, well, everything else. Demonic mascots, psychopathic cheerleaders, grown-ass men in full-head animal masks right out of the Dark Ages, all gathered round for the completion of the summoning ritual and the signing of the sacred Contract. But none of the cultists seem to have remembered that, despite decades of sacrifice and worship in blood and gore and faith, no-one commands HIM. And to a Devil, if that is what they truly summoned and made deals with, things like pity and mercy are unheard-of concepts. 

We never see the actual Devil, just hear the begging of his meal and the splatter of bloodspray and the crunch of his bones, a brilliant choice on the part of the filmmakers. Many of the scenes involving poor Cam’s descent into football insanity are difficult to comprehend, unless one is a rabid football fan in real life, and even then, likely deliberately made mind-boggling, so that we might experience it right along with Cam. So no, you don’t actually have to be a football fanatic in real life in order to enjoy the movie, but honestly, it really would help. Knowing things like what the jugs machine is actually capable of and how much pressure the quarterback is constantly under, actually contributes to a deeper understanding of the darkness the film portrays. And finally, the soundtrack to HIM is absolutely bangin! 

Pick which G.O.A.T. to cheer on, and catch HIM on Netflix now! 

Reviewed by Alicia Glass