The highly anticipated movie “HIM” released on Sept. 19. Directed by Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele, it starred Tryiq Withers as Cameron Cade and Marlon Wayans as Isaiah White. This movie uses religious imagery and body horror to tell the story of an upcoming quarterback, Cameron Cade, or Cam, who is projected to take the spot of the G.O.A.T., Isaiah White.
At the beginning of the movie, young Cam watches a football game between two teams, one being the fictional team the “San Antonio Saviors,” and watches Isaiah suffer a career-ending injury. This is when we hear the words “No guts, no glory” spoken by Cam’s father. This begins to feed us one of the main points of the film: What are you willing to sacrifice? Isaiah then miraculously comes back from his career-ending injury and goes on to win eight championships.
We then meet older Cam, who is in the top five in the draft. He’s projected to be the next G.O.A.T., is becoming successful, and is maybe hearing offers to go to the Saviors. He then suffers a brain injury from a man in a goat costume. People begin to doubt if he can play anymore. Isaiah then invites him to his compound for a week, where things seem normal, but then begin to get weird.
We begin to follow a day-to-day format, with Day 1 being titled fun. On this day, everything is normal and not much is wrong except for some things. Later in the week, we then begin to see Cam being portrayed as a messiah with references to the Last Supper and the temptations Jesus went through in the Bible. In the end, it's revealed that they were transferring Isaiah’s blood to Cam because there can only be one G.O.A.T., and Cam has to beat Isaiah to become the greatest.
This movie covers how footballers, and specifically quarterbacks, are idolized and how they are asked to destroy their bodies for the game. It uses unsettling camera angles, themes, and imagery to make viewers tense up in their seats. Marlon Wayans also greatly lifts his role as he portrays a maniac wanting to stay in power.
Overall, the movie is fantastic, both in explaining and conveying its message through film. This topic isn’t widely talked about, so it’s good to see an especially great movie to spread awareness. Even people who don’t know or like football should watch it.