Recxpectations: HIM

For my 15th New Thing out of 500, I checked out Him, the latest film NOT by Jordan Peele. Well, it’s produced by Mr. Peele but it’s directed by Justin Tipping. It’s a film about a young QB prospect who goes to train with his idol, the greatest of all-time, and something immediately seems unhinged about the training exercises.

EXPECT: the trailer.
I was hoping that this might be like Companion - the first trailer was unhinged but there was more to the story. (If you haven’t seen it, it’s my favorite movie of the year but do not watch the second trailer and don’t read the synopsis on HBO.) Unfortunately, what you see in the trailer is what you get from the film. It’s a film. the pretty much epitomizes It Is What It Is. There’s not a ton to it. There’s never really a sense of mystery since it gets pretty bonkers from the jump. I get the negative reviews since people were hoping for more but it’s just kind of an exercise in weirdness.

DON’T EXPECT: a horror film.
Again, this is mostly just an exercise in being weird. There’s a jump scare or two and some of the usual horror movie creepiness but the whole thing is set in such an unreal world that it’s hard to get too wrapped up in it. It’s less “What is going to happen next?” and more “Oh, so now THIS is happening. Cool.” The lead character also only shows the slightest bit of concern, which I think also feeds into the audience not really being on the edge of their seats.

DON’T EXPECT: it to stick the landing.
I try to stay away from spoilers so I can’t get into this much but, honestly, I’m not sure how the film could have stuck the landing. It was painfully obvious where it was going from the jump and, as I watched it, I wasn’t really looking forward to anything or wondering how something would work out or felt fearful of anything. There’s zero sense of foreboding in this one.

The film was watchable so I ended up ranking it at #34 for 2025, in between Caught Stealing and Highest 2 Lowest.