If you feel we need more horror movies set in the world of football, I bear thrilling news. 2025’s Him fills that particular void!

College player Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) looks like the Next Big Thing when he makes the leap to the professional ranks. However, when a crazed attacker assaults him, this leaves Cam with a Traumatic Brain Injury that could derail his entire sporting future.

This leads to questions about whether he can still perform but Cam gets a lifeline when pro great Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) agrees to train him. This comes with unforeseen consequences, as Isaiah’s offer comes with sinister strings attached.

When I saw the trailers for Him, I thought “I’ll see that if it gets good reviews”. It didn’t so my viewing of the film waited for this disc.

Plenty of others skipped Him theatrically as well. Though it opened in second place at the box office, it plummeted to sixth the following weekend and quickly vanished from multiplexes.

Given its promotion, I felt surprised Him even did that well, mainly because its trailers left the film’s plot difficult to discern. The promos leaned heavily on a Tarsem Singh-style artsy vibe and hoped that its trippy visuals would do enough to sell the movie.

Perhaps the prominent mention of producer Jordan Peele sold tickets out of the gate. Given the movie’s weak viewer ratings, I suspect poor word of mouth sank it.

Did Him deserve all the negative marks it received? Perhaps not, as I think it gives us enough interesting material to make it sporadically compelling.

That said, it throws a lot at the wall and wants to seem smarter and deeper than it is. This means that the movie starts pretty well but becomes more ridiculous as it goes.

Granted, I get that the filmmakers don’t intend for us to take everything we see as literal. Him clearly comes from Cameron’s POV.

Nonetheless, it walks an unsteady line as it covers its potentially unreliable narrator. Let’s face it: film isn’t a medium that allows the audience to easily view what they see as inaccurate.

It’s just too literal a format. We tend to take what we watch as real, and that happens even in movies that embrace fantasy. As long as the events make sense in the story’s universe, we accept them.

Him follows paths that take it from reality but we don’t question these because we see the tale as one that gives us warped horror. Like I said, we swallow unreality in a genre that allows for leaps of logic.

My problem with Him doesn’t stem with its choice to depict weird and unbelievable events. My concerns relate to the flawed manner in which the film depicts these elements.

Him simply can’t cover all the bases it pursues in a competent manner. It mixes religion and mythology and commentary on the commodification of athletes and the cult nature of sports celebrity and some social satire but it writes checks it can’t cash.

When it pursues a more straightforward path, it works reasonably well. But it gets more warped as it goes and these choices seem more about style than substance.

As mentioned, Him owes a clear visual debt to Tarsem Singh. Even he couldn’t really pull off his signature tendencies for anything longer than a music video, so director Justin Tipping feels like Tarsem Lite.

Him focuses so heavily on its surreal elements that it eventually makes no sense. It also tries hard to seem creepy and scary but just becomes silly instead.

I guess I applaud Tipping’s desire to do something ambitious and different with Him. Unfortunately, the end product just flails and doesn’t gel.

Him appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc – mostly. The opening scene appeared in 1.90:1 dimensions.

Whatever framing we got, Him looked good, with consistently solid definition. Outside of some intentionally trippy elements, softness remained absent in this accurate presentation.

The movie delivered no signs of jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes also failed to manifest. Source flaws never became an issue.

Him went with an intensely stylized palette that mixed heavy tans, blues, greens, yellows and reds. The disc replicated the hues in an appropriate manner.

Blacks seemed deep and dense, while low-light shots brought appropriate delineation. This turned into a well-reproduced image.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack suited the story. This meant creepy atmosphere punctuated with occasional “scare moments”.

Football scenes offered involvement as well, though those didn’t come along too often given the movie’s emphasis on character horror. Still, the soundfield opened up in an appropriate manner and suited the narrative.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that seemed distinctive and concise. Music offered appealing range and vivacity.

Effects seemed accurate and full, with nice punch. I felt the movie’s mix became a positive accompaniment to the visuals.

As we shift to extras, we launch with an audio commentary from co-writer/director Justin Tipping. He offers a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, influences and themes, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, photography, editing, effects, and stunts.

That becomes a good array of topics, and Tipping provides useful insights at times. However, he can meander and he also goes MIA too often for this to become a consistently strong track.

A few featurettes follow, and Becoming Them runs nine minutes, seven seconds. It provides info from Tipping, producers Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld and Ian Cooper, trainer/nutritionist Adam Quinter, football coach Jordan Palmer, and actors Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers and Julia Fox.

The show looks at story/characters/themes, cast, performances, and training. “Becoming” mixes a few insights with a fair amount of fluff.

The Sport of Filmmaking goes for 10 minutes, 10 seconds. This one offers notes from Tipping, Wayans, Withers, Rosenfeld, Cooper, producer Jamal Watson, production designer Jordan Ferrer, associate producer Ciera Dunbar, director of photography Kira Kelly, and stunt coordinator Justin Yu.

Here we learn about the project’s development, the meaning of the title, production design, themes and allusions, and cinematography. It turns into a decent overview despite too much puffy material.

Two Anatomy of a Scene reels follow: “A Diabolical Game of Catch” (4:25) and “Rebirth” (4:53). Across these, we hear from Tipping, Wayans, Watson, Withers, Cooper, Peele, Fox, prosthetic designer/lead sculptor and painter J. Anthony Kosar, and actors Chase Garland, Maurice Greene, and Tim Heidecker.

As expected, both of these clips get into specific sequences. Like the other featurettes, these mix useful insights with happy talk.

Hymns of a GOAT lasts four minutes, 36 seconds. It provides remarks from Cooper, Rosenfeld, Tipping, Dunbar, Peele, and composer Bobby Krlic.

We learn about the movie’s music. It becomes yet another combination of facts and fluff.

The disc also includes an Alternate Ending (2:13), a Deleted End Credits Scene (1:07) and five Deleted Scenes (13:19). The “Alternate Ending’ provides a dark coda for the Isaiah character.

Entitled “Food or Freedom”, the “End Credits” clip also offers an epitaph of sorts and also gives the movie a strange – and almost certainly intentional – throwback to 2010’s Inception. These two sequences seem moderately intriguing, and I admit I like the Inception reference, even if it feels like a cheat.

As for the five deleted scenes, most actually involve extended versions of existing segments. Isaiah’s wife comes more to the fore but I can’t claim anything significant materializes here.

Despite some impactful visuals and a potentially appealing willingness to give moviegoers something unusual, Him focuses far too much on style over coherence. It becomes less interesting as it goes and winds up as a mess by its conclusion. The Blu-ray delivers strong picture and audio plus a generally positive set of supplements. I respect the filmmakers’ ambition here but the final result sputters.