It’s impossible not to think of Get Out — Jordan Peele’s seminal horror hit, which redefined the genre for better and worse — when Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) steps into the lair of his childhood hero 20 minutes into HIM. The star quarterback he shaped his life around, Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), is not nearly as menacing as the villains of Peele’s Guess Who remix. He presents himself as an easygoing mentor, one Cam could have called “unc” if he wasn’t so star-struck. But his environment tells a different story: he’s surrounded by Greco-Roman statues and suits of ancient Gladiator armor, with the skins of goats (which he may or may not have slaughtered himself) stretched out across every wall. This is a warrior, one who approaches a sport as ruthless as football with even more outsized intensity. This is also a man who clearly has something sinister up his sleeve, who will likely do anything — maybe even some perverse body-swapping ritual — to stay on top.
Isaiah’s first impression, and the mismatched decor of this space, tells us everything we need to know about HIM — though the odyssey that follows offers little in the way of artistic cohesion. The supernatural sports horror has Peele’s fingerprints all over it: His name, and the reputation that comes with it, has been used to promote the film more than that of its actual director, Justin Tipping. It’s not only because the auteur serves as the producer of HIM, but maybe since it’s also the latest in a long, tedious line of horror films “yes and”-ing the beats and visuals that Peele made gospel in Get Out.
