By: Arts & Entertainment Editor Ashley Jones  

On Sept. 19, Director Justin Tipping and Jordan Peele released “HIM” into theaters. Though, Jordan Peele’s name was referenced heavily within the marketing of the film, he remains only as a producer for the film.  

“HIM” is a psychological thriller horror film that explores themes of the high stakes within American football, sacrifices made for success, obsessive fan culture, hypermasculinity, race, and religious imagery.   

If you have watched any of Jordan Peele’s previous films, you’re familiar with his brand of socially conscious horror with themes relating to the Black American experience — and this film is no exception. 

This film follows Cameron Cade (played by Tyriq Withers), a promising quarterback who aspires to become the G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time) like his hero Isaiah White (played by Marlon Wayans.) After suffering from a potentially career-ending head injury, Cade receives a chance at redemption when he is invited by White to train for a week. 

As the week goes on, Cade slowly comes to the discovery that White’s training methods are more than just unorthodox, the training is a twisted nightmare.  

In his interview with Variety.com, Tipping discussed what inspired him to make this film “[t]he themes I was most interested in are, What happens when the athlete becomes the commodity in the institution? If your body’s your only capital, and you get injured or age out, you are just a warm body that is disposable. If that’s the horrific, underlying thing, I think there’s a lot to explore there.” 

Tipping’s inspiration is explicitly shown throughout the film, with several scenes using an “X-ray Cam” technique to show viewers the direct violence football has on athletes’ bodies.  

I really enjoyed the film and would give it a rating of 8.5 out of 10 stars. I particularly enjoyed the film’s soundtrack and the brutalist and supernatural feel to the set design.  

Julia Fox, who plays Elsie White, Isaiah White’s wife, was interviewed by Polygon.com about the set design. 

“All the stuff in Isaiah’s house — in our house, I guess — was shot in the wings of the stadium [a football field in Albuquerque, Nex Mexico]. So, it was these beautiful sets built in the stadium, and that’s why our house has such a brutalist raw feel. It’s what the football stadium interiors looked like,” she said. 

If you enjoy thriller, gore, commoditization, distorted representations of American culture, supernatural occult forces, and the critique of the brutal and dehumanizing nature of sports for Black athletes, then this is the movie for you. 

If you’re interested in watching the film, it’s currently playing, as of Sept. 24, at the Valdosta Stadium Cinemas, located at 1680 Baytree Road.