Him (2025)

Becoming the greatest football player alive should cost something, which is a great horror idea. Him fumbles it well before the fourth quarter. Tyriq Withers plays Cam Cade, a rising star nursing a concussion as the combine closes in. His agent, Tim Heidecker’s Tom, brings an offer from Cam’s childhood idol, Marlon Wayans’s Isaiah White: one week of training at Isaiah’s remote desert compound. A pack of Isaiah’s superfans tries to scare Cam off, the drills look more like hazing than practice, and Cam keeps seeing masked figures he blames on the concussion. Wayans is the best thing here, with a cold, unblinking intensity that holds the whole thing together, and Withers handles the punishing physical side well. But the script can’t decide if it’s a satire or a sermon, and the final act goes so far off the rails that audiences polled on opening night handed it a C-minus CinemaScore. A 3.6 because Wayans deserved a better playbook. $82.28 says you watch the next big game and wonder what the quarterback had to sign.

What works: Marlon Wayans gives a coldly intense dramatic performance, and the film has real visual style.

What doesn’t: The script can’t balance its satire with its serious ideas, and the final act goes completely off the rails.

Who it’s for: Football fans who like their horror weird and want to see Wayans go full menace.