Those who follow sports, who watch *their* teams battle *your* teams, participate in a form of tribalism that extends beyond one’s immediate borders, beyond country, beyond cultural, and, sometimes, beyond time, as said fandom gets passed down through the generations so that North Carolinians are shouting “Let’s Go, Mets!” or knowingly jam to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” without ever having stepped foot in Shea or Lane Stadiums. Such faithfulness results in more than general enthusiasm, it results in a sense of pride and personal value that becomes intrinsically tied to the success or failure of a team. This is a critical element of director/co-writer Justin Tipping’s (Kicks) HIM, a psychological sports thriller which removes all subtext and subtlety in its exploration of football as *the* faith of America and the darkness within it. Now available on home video, it includes a host of supplemental materials to better understand what Tipping, the cast, and crew sought to provoke within audiences via their tale.
L-R: Marlon Wayan as Isaiah and Tyriq Withers as Cam in HIM, directed by Justin Tipping. © Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) grew up in a Saviours household, spending Game Day with his father watching quarterback Isiah White (Marlon Wayans) lead their team to glory. During one game, they bear witness to a terrible injury White suffers while scoring a touchdown, which Cameron’s father uses as a teachable moment: winners make sacrifices to win. Now an athlete himself, adult Cameron is a quarterback with incredible prospects until he’s attacked and left with a significant cranial injury. Terrified that all he’s worked for will disappear, Cameron sees salvation arrive in the form of an invitation to attend Isiah’s own football camp for a week to see if he has what it takes to transcend and become the greatest of all time.
The following review is based on a 4K UHD edition retail copy provided by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Additionally, though this is a first-time review of HIM, we will be providing specific plot points in order to address areas of interest amid discussion of the bonus features.
Co-written by Zack Akers (Control), Skip Bronkie (Control), and Tipping, HIM is intended as a psychological thriller which incorporates the high tension of pursuing high achievement in sports with religion. Tradition indicates that a psychological thriller would test the audience as much as the protagonist in terms of whether what we observe is real, thereby generating tension for us through the push/pull of questioning. None of this is present in HIM. Even though the film doesn’t explicitly state its intentions until the climax, it doesn’t hide its nefariousness either. Cameron’s entrance to the camp compound is met with anger from Isiah’s fans over the potential retirement of Isiah, seeing Cameron as a Judas, a betrayer, a stealer of the throne which is made plain by a crazed fan who attacks Cameron’s window, shouting at him, and spitting on his window. This sequence and all the days that follow are joined by a day count and a subhead to signify what that day represents. In a different sports film, the counting would signify the journey Cameron goes through in order for him to move past his injury and regain what he needs to become an effective QB, however, here, it’s more symbolic of the seven Biblical days it took G-d to make all things; this is a period of creation in which Isiah represents a wrathful powerful figure who controls Cameron’s fate. Moving forward, Isiah shifts between gleeful and supportive mentor and maniacal and cruel figurehead, uplifting and pushing Cameron through either gaslighting directly or torturing an innocent in order to provoke Cameron into transforming himself to fit the mold Isiah sees as worthy of producing someone worth passing his mantle to. This includes, but is not limited to, having a free agent player use his face to catch footballs shot from an automated machine when Cameron is too slow or throws an incomplete pass during drills OR causing Cameron to commit murder under the guise of team building. With the exception of some stylized sequences to create an X-ray or thermal effect so as to give the viewer a sub-dermal view of the characters and the impact of their physical activity on their bodies, there’s absolutely no question of what’s going on or the journey Cameron experiences. The film is about as subtle in its construction and execution, rendering the psychological elements moot and the horror blunted.
There’s something to be said for the ways in which the disquiet works. When Cameron is prompted for a weigh-in, Isaiah and trainer Mike (Jim Jeffries) goad him into stripping and then give him shit for going so far as to include his underwear. In between, his measurements are taken, his hands, arms, and back analyzed for strengths and weaknesses like he’s chattel awaiting transport to the market. These moments work beautifully to serve the notion that Cameron is given value precisely because of these attributes, a correlation forming that he’s, therefore, only of value when he can play and deserving of the slaughterhouse when not. These elements, when applied with a gentle hand, infuse HIM with appropriate disquiet, moreso than hard cuts depicting the end of one day and the abrupt start to another, the presentation of media training conflated with Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” or the outright, literal sacrifices made to grant Cameron the title of HIM, the supreme one/the G.O.A.T./the highest of high. Instead, because the majority is handled with all the understatedness of a sledgehammer, there’s no tension, no questioning, and no mystery to pull us forward, only the expectation of where it all leads: two gladiators placed into an arena with only one victor and no compromise possible. This makes for a fairly basic horror tale and an underwhelming sports analogy as the passing of the torch, the mentorship, the concept of only one GOAT per generation, is reduced to two Black men competing for their survival and the blessings of rich white men who have preyed on the dreams of athletes for generations in order to be blessed by an unseen force. There are engaging ideas within HIM, but all of them are handled with such an absence of subtlety that it’s difficult to care about any of it.
If the production design, art design, and cinematography of HIM intrigue you, the bonus features are going to absolutely delight. Across three featurettes, audiences are brought behind the curtain and right onto the various sets and locations of HIM. We get to learn about the training Withers and Wayans engaged in to prepare for their roles, the significance of many of the choices made on the sets to convey the themes of the film and intentions of the characters, and how set choices influenced the cinematography and the responses to challenges faced. Producer Jordan Peele (NOPE), Tipping, Wayans, Withers, cinematographer Kira Kelly (13th; Rez Ball), composer Bobby Krlic (Midsommar; Beau Is Afraid), and others share a variety of details that do demonstrate a clear intentionality of the filmmakers when developing, constructing, and executing their vision — all of which is effectively achieved, even if the intention of tension is brutally absent. Adding to this, there are two deleted sequences, one featuring Isiah, which, frankly, should’ve been included during the film as a nightmare of his in order to better understand his motivations, and one that was original intended as an end credits stinger wrapping up the mystery of Cameron’s choices. There are also five deleted/extended sequences — one involving target practice between Isiah and Camron that introduces more psychological elements and one that makes more clear Isiah’s wife Elsie’s (Julia Fox) involvement in things. There’re also two “Anatomy of a Scene” featurettes walking audiences through the intent and construction of both the “game of catch” and “rebirth” sequences. If you don’t feel like the answers satisfied your questions enough with these materials, there’s also a feature-length commentary track with Tipping.
As this is a 4K UHD release, it’s worth noting that the bitrate is terribly low. Whereas the max bitrate on a Blu-ray is 40 Mbps, the 4K UHD disc hovers between upper 50/lower 60s with rare bursts higher and occasionally dips into the 40s. This translates to sequences in which Kelly’s cinematography is underserved on home video with the crispness of the image holding in outside sequences or within the smartly lit indoor training area of the compound, but any scene that is darkly lit or is playing with colors becomes difficult to see. In a thriller, details matter, so while there’s no artifacting or suggestion of degraded image, the range of color one expects from HDR or 4K, in general, the images themselves don’t engross as one might desire. In this case, a physical media collector may be better served just picking up the Blu-ray disc than shelling out for the 4K.
Even if the film itself underwhelms, the performances from the two leads keep one curious. Wayans, in particular, brings an intensity and sincerity we rarely see from the comedian, causing one to believe the unpredictability. His work in Requiem for a Dream (2000) is still worth talking about 25 years later and, while he has explored series dramas and other genres before, most know him from his comedic work. This, however, is a brand-new calling card. Withers is comparatively still new with work in a few films, such as Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (2024) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025). His work here impresses, demonstrating an ability to meet Wayans and present Cameron’s desire to press beyond Isiah believably. It’s only a shame that the film around them doesn’t measure up for the sheer fact that we can see the end coming before the prologue is complete. Without that tension, it doesn’t matter how well the filmmakers, cast, and crew accomplish their task of thematic weight as we, the audience, are no longer along for the ride with Cameron, but is instead are waiting for him to catch up with us.
HIM Special Features*:
- Feature commentary with Director/Co-Writer Justin Tipping (1:36:16)
- Alternate Ending: Zay’s Nightmare (2:14)
- Deleted End Credits Scene: Food or Freedom (1:07)
- Becoming Them – Tyriq Withers and Marlon Wayans didn’t just train like athletes — they learned to think like them. From strict diets and daily workouts to meditation sessions and leadership drills, we explore how these two actors didn’t just play the part—they lived it. (9:07)
- The Sport of Filmmaking – From integrated lighting and military grade thermal cameras to detailed prosthetics and elevated sets, see how everything came together to create a film as spiritual as it is cinematic. (10:10)
- Hymns of a G.O.A.T. – Go behind the scenes with composer Bobby Krlic as he heightens the film’s psychological edge through score—layering aggressive textures, foreboding tensions, and atmospheric sound design that heighten every moment. (4:37)
- Anatomy of a Scene: A Diabolical Game of Catch (4:26)
- Anatomy of a Scene: Rebirth (4:54)
- Five (5) Deleted Scenes (13:36)
*Digital buyer receives limited license to access content. See retailer’s terms for details.
Available on VOD and digital October 7th, 2025.
Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray November 11th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Universal Pictures HIM website.
Final Score: 2 out of 5.
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Categories: Home Video, Reviews, streaming
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