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Him
Movie

Him

2025 • Horror, Sport

Woke Score
6
out of 10

Plot

A young athlete descends into a world of terror when he's invited to train with a legendary champion whose charisma curdles into something darker.

Overall Series Review

The film utilizes a horror framework to critique American professional football, casting the sport's high-pressure environment as a demonic, cult-like conspiracy. The plot follows young quarterback Cameron Cade as he is drawn into the isolated training compound of his idol, the eight-time champion Isaiah White. The core narrative focuses on the physical and psychological destruction of the athlete in the relentless pursuit of excellence and profit. The movie explicitly uses a lens of racial and economic critique, portraying the system as one where predominantly Black athletes are exploited by "typically old, white, and rich" owners. The sports culture is depicted as an institution that demands human sacrifice and relies on dark, ritualistic practices. While the central conflict is a masculine one, women are relegated to supportive or aesthetic roles, such as the worried mother, the girlfriend, and the "influencer wife." The themes of spiritual corruption and moral bankruptcy are prominent, with the entire structure of the championship culture being framed as a satanic pact.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics8/10

The narrative explicitly positions the professional football system as an intersectional power struggle. The movie focuses on the exploitation of Black players by "typically old, white, and rich" ownership and uses the dynamic between the two Black protagonists to illustrate systemic oppression. The plot is structured to critique a racialized power imbalance in a major American industry. The film’s thematic thesis relies heavily on this race and class-based critique of the establishment.

Oikophobia9/10

A major American cultural institution, professional football, is framed as fundamentally corrupt, predatory, and sinister. The sports world is not a shield against chaos but the source of chaos and a "cult-like" conspiracy that demands human sacrifice and bodily destruction. This constitutes a deconstruction of a significant national and cultural pillar, framing it as a rotten system of exploitation.

Feminism5/10

The main action focuses on the high-pressure world of male professional sports and the critique of a 'no guts, no glory' form of toxic masculinity embodied by the father and the mentor. The female characters—the mother, the girlfriend, and the 'influencer wife'—are secondary to the central, male-driven conflict. The film does not feature a Mary Sue or 'Girl Boss,' but the male characters who represent traditional striving are portrayed as either victims or villains, which critiques traditional male roles.

LGBTQ+1/10

Available plot details focus exclusively on the dynamics within the heterosexual football world, including male-female relationships and the relationship between the two male athletes. No presence or centering of alternative sexual identities, gender ideology, or deconstruction of the nuclear family is evident in the film's core themes or plot summary.

Anti-Theism8/10

The horror elements involve a "demonic spirit," "satanic imagery," and an "arcane" cult structure operating under the guise of an elite sports compound. The team name, 'Saviours,' and an allegedly poorly handled 'Jesus motif' suggest that traditional religious symbolism is either used to mock faith or is replaced by a dark, malevolent spiritual power that represents the moral vacuum of the capitalist sports machine.