Revue ‘Him’: American football becomes a psychological horror

As a writer and director, Jordan Peele brought us the zero sensations of Come out And No. As a producer, he was busy extending black horror by editing other filmmakers, such as Nia Dacosta (Candy),, JD Dillard (The twilight zone Restart), and now Justin Tipping, co-series and director of Him.

The advantage of Peele’s participation is to link these filmmakers up to a brand established of successful horror and black excellence. The disadvantage, however, is that fans and criticisms may not be as welcoming for horror visions that do not imitate Peele’s signature. Critics were hard with Candy And The twilight zone. So what will it mean to Him?

On the Tipping side are two incredible leading men. Marlon Wayans, in a dramatic turn outside the brand, and Tyriq Withers are a sensational team, perhaps reflecting their own places in the film industry.

The first plays a charismatic and established football star who got tired of the pressures of fame and abuses perpetrated by sport on his body, not to mention the even darker stomach of sacrifices which he cannot speak. The latter plays the ambitious, talented and naive recruit who ignores what football will really demand from his body, his mind and his soul.

The resulting film, although unequal, is rich because of these two performances, by collizing with the inspired vision of Giallo of Tipping of American football. But is this film overall a victory?

Him cheek like Sigh Meet the NFL project.

For legal reasons, the Tipping scenario, Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie will not use familiar team names or other brands affiliated with NFL, including the real nickname of annual “big game”. But Him Does not need that.

Focused on a team called Saviors, Him Rather focuses on the training required to become the goat (the greatest of all time). The former university footballer who has become actor Tyriq Withers plays the role of hope for Draft Cameron Cade. Since his childhood, Cam’s father has highlighted black excellence in the field of football, saying to him: “This is what real men do. They sacrifice. No guts, no glory.”

Cam is a university quarter hoping to follow in the footsteps of his idol, the MVP of Saviors Isaiah White (Wayans). Fourteen years after what should have been an end of career injury on the ground, White finally looks at retirement. But first, he takes Cam under his wing to see if the young man is ready to be “him”, which means the next great thing for the brand of Saviors. However, the training of Isaiah is not conventional, demanding that Cam put back his phone and submits a diet held mainly in a bizarre underground bunker, deep in a burning desert.

Like budding ballerinas from horror classic Sigh,, Who are also trapped in a summary training center, he is initially if led to do good by his teacher that he will do everything he asked. It starts with tests of his obedience which begin with humiliation, then quickly move to endurance and violence. While his body is pushed to its limits, its mind is shaking with horrible visions. Are they hallucinations caused by a concussion? Or even more frightening, are they real? And anyway, what do they mean for cam?

Him Brews solid suspense and surreal fear.

Credit: Parrish Lewis / Universal Pictures

Tilting reimagine the iconography of American football in certain sensational frightening sequences. For example, a mascot, large, masked and brandishing a weapon emerges in a leap fear and acts like a slasher, attacing an involuntary footballer. Throughout Cam’s trip, the mascots will emerge in soft, sparkling and yet foreign and disturbing costumes. There is a feeling that they hide something sinister under their too puffed smiles and the floating members.

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Fans get a similar transformation. Their excited acclamations turn into yowls into echo and obsessive. Their fervor for Isaiah turns against all those who could threaten his participation for another victory. More specifically, while Cam reaches the doors of the desert compound, its transport is caught by Marjorie (a really frightening Naomi Grossman), whose long blond hair and makeup seem ruined by years of sweat, tears and obsession. She spits threatening on Cam’s car and looks at him as if an animal roasted it. By his side are two figures covered with white body painting. But instead of resembling Sunday evening football beer beer, they are more common with lean acolytes and covered with ash of ash Mad Max: Fury RoadImmortan Joe, their faces covered with strange masks in the shape of football, from the henchmen to a worship.

As indicated by the name of the Saviors team, football is their faith, a quarter of their God. The tilting will push this point with more Christian iconography, like the golden cross around the neck of Cam, the recreation of The last supper At a central point in his training and the offering of a Grail which could be filled with red wine or sacrificial blood. Isaiah attaches the idea of ​​football and its blood and body sacrifices requested from the gladiators of ancient Rome, although considering that the third act of the film reveals, there are historical references closer to their home which could have been more effective.

The tilting is at its best when it uses sections of suffocation of blood red light, flashing effects and X -ray filters to disorient the standard vision of football, game, training and drugs. While Wayans Blows in mercurial moments, Withers is the public’s conduit, alternately charmed and alarmed by this icon. Their chemistry, a dizzying mixture of mutual admiration and toxic jealousy, made Him Convincing because he approaches sequences of psychological horror and violence. But frustrating …

Him gropes his culminating point.

Credit: Universal images

During a large part of the film, the tilting plays with what is real. Horrors playing on the screen could be visions of Cam brain trauma, acting his anxieties of glory and fans, or they could reflect the horrible extreme football obsessives could reach the pursuit of this exultant victory. Such a configuration certainly requires a violent final. And yet, the one who Him The offers feel raised from another film.

After so much elegant and nightmare suspense, the great test of strength between Cam and Isaiah is simple in its staging and exasperating anti-climacy. From there, the film embarks on a completely different look, taking its hero outside the oppressive interiors of the complex to a brilliantly lit day with a range of antagonists introduced.

The following violence is splashing in a traditional horror, but cut, therefore Slapdash, it looks like a reflection afterwards. It left me curious to know if universal has panicked and demanded a new end with too little notice, because as it is, HimThe culmination feels disorderly too much of what preceded. Unanswered questions, curious characters and even an apparent murder remain not only hanging, but completely forgotten in place of a conclusion that only raises new questions, offering no satisfaction.

Julia Fox is quite bizarre and evil.

Credit: Universal images

Where Wayans and Withers found Him In a world of stimulating masculinity, Fox represents something else. Her hair whiten the pale blonde – the eyebrows and everything – she plays the ostentatious woman of Isaiah, Elsie White, influencer in lifestyle. In a whirlwind of an entrance, she welcomes Cam, declares the value of the eggs of Jade Yoni for “cat” health, then hands her the male equivalent. “Put it in your asshole,” she said, before disappearing in a dark corridor, while shouting at her assistant Taylor (a Kiara Gomez Gamez Bak).

In the austere masculinity of this training compound, Elsie is a vision of femininity, sex, fashion, fame and white privilege. She bypassing the speech of sacrifice when he was dressed as a sensible disco ball and embarked on the intimacy required for ultra-rich. In this area, she is a scandalous comic relief, but also highlighting the message of the film on the race, its barriers and its advantages in the media and sports. In Him, It is a siren and a spectacular stage thief. Even in a third act which collapses regularly with a dam of shock and attacks, Fox is fascinating.

At the end, Him is a mixed bag, offering rich performances, disturbing fears – in particular that involving a sauna – and food for thought in terms of sport, race, religion and masculinity. But perhaps with Him, Tipping, which has directed episodes of sensational television shows like Chi And Dear whites as well as the series of Calamit True Crime Comedy comedies Joe against Carole, Back more than he could chew.

Something ambiguous in the conclusion could have paid, perhaps if Him Stay with the surrealist suspense game he had run. But in its last minutes, the Tipping tale spilled with something more concrete, gorling and less daring. This end, although twisted and exciting, does not feel won. So at the end, Him Don’t be scary.

Him Open in theaters on September 19.