![Students in the National Art Honor Society work on the Mount Hood mural on the window of SouthLake Church. The students brought a variety of paints and mixed their own custom colors. “Instead of brushstrokes, we’re doing more dabbing, because it gives [a] better impression of tree foliage, rather than looking like actual brush strokes, because if we’re painting trees, we need it to look like trees,” Crawford said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_2397-1200x900.jpg)
![Main Street said farewell to summer on Aug. 30 through the second annual Chalk Walk Art Festival. Ruth Offer, Chalk Walk organizer, brought this tradition from Wyoming in an attempt to make use of the renovated sidewalks of Willamette Falls Dr. “[This is] a community event for the kids,” Offer said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-12-1200x803.png)
“Him” is an original screenplay written and directed by Justin Tipping, co-written by Zachery Aker and Skip Bronkie, and produced by Jordan Peele, who is known for his award-winning horror movies.
The film is about a rising quarterback, Cameron Cade, played by Tyriq Withers, who suffers a traumatic brain injury during the start of his professional career. He is then invited to train with his idol, Isaiah White, played by Marlon Wayans, at his mansion.
The movie starts with seven minutes of exposition, but it’s mixed in with enough acting and dialogue that it’s not horribly boring to watch, just a little drawn out.
The atmosphere is macabre but differs from the traditional dark and spooky sense. The architecture and interior design of White’s mansion, where most of the movie takes place, contribute significantly to the film’s horror atmosphere—its design is minimalistic and esoteric. It is clear, from the moment Cade walks into the home of his idol, what the movie is going to be about… a cult.
Something the movie uses well is the paranormal. It’s sprinkled throughout the film to the point where it’s unclear if what’s happening is unnatural or part of Cade’s imagination. Sometimes it’s both.
It’s a full-length film, but not a two-hour movie like other recent horror pictures; its total runtime is 96 minutes, a comfortable watch for those who don’t like sitting through long films.
Viewers of the movie do not need to know anything about football to enjoy the film. It doesn’t bash anyone over the head with technical terms or references to the National Football League. Football jargon and repeated sports references wouldn’t have added or subtracted anything to the plot, so they weren’t included.
This is most likely because the film is a scathing critique of American football culture: the repeated use of concussion imagery, the actions of the white executives, the obsessive way the players talk about and train for the sport, and other such events. It’s obvious what the film is telling the viewers.
One thing the movie doesn’t vividly showcase is its themes of race, but even that is made clear if any attention is paid to the characters and the circumstances they find themselves in.
While the movie doesn’t skimp on symbolism, it does a lot of telling instead of showing. And when it is showing, it’s so obvious that the viewer doesn’t need to think about what the film is implying.
We know the motivations of White immediately, even if we don’t know what exactly he’s involved in. It treads the line between foreshadowing and just telling the viewer what’s going to happen next, even if the actions of some characters are occasionally unpredictable.
The film may have been stronger if it had left some things up to interpretation. Yet, it may also be a good thing that the movie lays its intentions bare; It’s very hard to miss the point.
The movie just left theaters; it can be bought on Amazon Prime and will likely be streaming on Peacock sometime in the coming months.
8/10
