IS THIS THE BIGGEST DISSAPOINTMENT OF 2025!? - Him Review

Him (2025 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Him is a 2025 American sports horror film directed by Justin Tipping, co-written by Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, and Tipping, and produced by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions. The film stars Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, and Tim Heidecker. Its plot follows the trials of a young up-and-coming football player (Withers) training at the isolated compound of an aging, nearly retired quarterback (Wayans).

Him was first released in Mexico on September 18, 2025, and was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on September 19, 2025. The film received generally negative reviews from critics.

Cast

Marlon Wayans as Isaiah White, a legendary quarterback for the San Antonio Saviors.
Tyriq Withers as Cameron "Cam" Cade, a young football player who is mentored by Isaiah.
Julia Fox as Elsie White, a social media influencer and Isaiah's wife.
Tim Heidecker as Tom, Cam's manager
Jim Jefferies as Marco, Isaiah's personal doctor
Naomi Grossman as Marjorie, a crazed fan of Isaiah.
GiGi Erneta as Ayn
Norman Towns as Willis
Maurice Greene as Malek, a trainer and a horned fanatic.
Guapdad 4000 as Murph
Tierra Whack as Adrienne
Don Benjamin as Cam Sr., Cameron's father

Production
Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie wrote a spec script initially titled Goat—in reference to the sports term "greatest of all time" (GOAT)—and took it out for sale with WME in April 2022.[7][8] In June 2022, Monkeypaw Productions, in a deal with Universal Pictures, bought the script.[9] At the end of the year, the script was voted onto the Black List of best unproduced screenplays in 2022.[10] In January 2024, Justin Tipping was announced as the director with Marlon Wayans starring,[11] and later Tyriq Withers joined the cast.[12] In February, Julia Fox joined the cast.[13] The film was retitled Him with the setting of its release date in September 2025.[14] Principal photography was completed by November 2024.[15] The production budget had a net cost of $27 million.[16] It was filmed on location in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico. Spaceport America was used as an exterior location.

Release
Him was first released in Mexico on September 18, 2025, and was theatrically released on September 19, 2025, by Universal Pictures.

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 29% of 131 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Fumbling the ball well before the red zone, Him has style to spare but botches its promising concept with rookie execution."[23] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 38 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[24] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale.[2]

Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Amid the thrills, Him gets you thinking about the sport and all that it demands, potentially making monsters of our heroes in the process. But as the saying goes: Don’t hate the player, hate the game."[25]

IndieWire's David Ehrlich gave the film a C-, stating, "Him knows that it’s silly as hell, but it has no idea how to balance that against the ostensible seriousness of its social critique, which is how you wind up with leaden dialogue sandwiched between moments of broad satire."[26] In a negative review for RogerEbert.com, Robert Daniel gave the film a 0.5 out of 4 rating, and wrote, "HIM wants to deliver psychic shocks, but the film doesn’t know what approach to take. The demonic scenes that seem to be inside Cam’s head—a glittering mascot wielding a sledgehammer often lurks in the shadows—oscillate between being internalized and externalized with no real logic backing up the switches. We see medicines injected by Isaiah’s personal trainer that are meant to increase Cam’s performance, but the body horror of watching the needle pierce Cam’s skin falls flat because we don’t know what’s in the vials or their actual effect. The film, for good measure, even tries to insert a Jesus motif whose religious importance is ham-fisted, rushed, and not all that original."[27]

Speaking about the negative reviews, Marlon Wayans said: "I respect critics. Their job is to Critique. I respect their work. It shapes our industry. But an opinion does not always mean it’s everyone’s opinion. Some movies are ahead of the curve. Innovation is not always embraced and art is to be interpreted and it’s subjective. I’ve had a career of making classic movies that weren’t critically recieved [sic] and those movies went on to be CLASSICS. So don’t take anyone’s opinion just go see for yourself."