By Audrey Elwood, Campus News Editor

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Jordan Peele’s studio, Monkeypaw Productions, released a new horror movie, “Him,” following an aspiring quarterback training with his idol. The setup was spectacular and the idea was genius, but the execution was horrid. 

The movie’s central theme of grooming children into sports was very clearly received. However, the movie could not balance the inherent scary and absurd nature of the premise into something that was enjoyable. 

The setup made sense and was easy to follow. The audience could clearly see the motivations behind protagonist Cam Cade, his family and specifically his father’s influence. The moment that inspired his idolship toward famous quarterback Isaiah White was a supposedly career ending injury in the endzone at the Superbowl. His dad repeats the phrase “no guts, no glory,” which is a fitting phrase for a horror movie that plays it safer than a Barbie movie. 

Cam gets a concussion after a mascot attacks him during practice. This causes him to miss the combine and go into training led by Isaiah. Cam continues to train while he has a concussion, causing him to slowly descend deeper into the madness. This emphasizes the theme of constant devotion to the sport, especially to one’s own detriment. 

Most of Cam’s training is meaningless filler. This brings me to the biggest gripe with the movie: the utter lack of plot. One hour of the movie’s one hour and 36 minute run time could have been cut with little fanfare. 

There was running around, brutality and getting re-concussed, but there was no hero’s story. I mean, your friend coming home from the bar could tell a better throughline. All this plot made every important detail indistinguishable from useless information.  

We get introduced to Elsie, who serves little plot action other than being Isaiah’s wife, trying to get Cam to sleep with her and getting Cam to go to a strip club to talk to the owners. She is a flat character with no substance, seemingly only there to be a woman in the movie, reduced to an object. 

The main iconography in the movie is the devil. There are little teasers here and there, like when Isaiah said that he would reorder the classic “God, Family, Football” phrase to “Football, Family, God.” 

The fictional team’s name was literally the Saviors. However, it felt gratuitous, and did not even make sense after the “big reveal” that was predictable from 20 minutes in. 

Isaiah and Cam must fight to the death to become the starting quarterback for the Saviors. After Cam was injected by the blood of the football gods (not joking that is what they were actually called in the movie, how corny), he and Isaiah fight in the most boring way possible. 

Eventually, Cam wins in a case of plot convenience. He broke his arm mid-fight but was still able to beat the greatest football player of all time? Yeah, sure he did! 

Cam comes out of the tunnel, in the classic Friday Night Lights way, to cheerleaders and a pep band. The owners and Elsie try to get him to sign on the dotted line, solidifying him as the next great football star and revealing that his dad had signed him up from childhood to be the next GOAT, in a “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” manner. 

Cam says no and decides to kill them all. With his broken arm, he slays all of the board, the owner, Elsie, the son of the owner and his manager. Then he simply walked off, giving an almost “The Breakfast Club” ending to a horror movie.

This movie was not a psychological thriller. While it had the expected race commentary from a movie produced by Jordan Peele, it had none of the artistry. The ending felt more like a “then everyone clapped” Tumblr post rather than a deep commentary about how young black men are expected to sacrifice everything in the name of being the best. 

Over and over again, we hear commentary from Isaiah and Cam about how being a black quarterback adds extra pressure to an already stressful job. The whole board was white, commentating on the race dynamics in football. Other than this, there is no other point made, and the movie loses its major theme at the last possible moment.

This movie could have been the next “Get Out,” but instead it’s getting people out of the theater, with a $13.6 million opening weekend on a $27 million budget. “Him” is a disappointing movie with unfilled potential.