HIM : Tuesday 7th October 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'HIM' earlier this week, and this American supernatural psychological sports horror film that is Co-Written and Directed by Justin Tipping in only his second feature film Directing outing following 2016's 'Kicks'. He has Directed a number of TV series episodes including four episodes of 'Twenties' in 2020, three each of 'Flatbush Misdemeanours' and 'Run the World' in 2021, and four of 'Joe vs. Carole' in 2022. The film is Produced by Jordan Peele's ('Get Out', 'Us' and 'Nope') Monkeypaw Productions. The film was released in the US on 19th September, and here in Australia last week, has so far grossed US$26M off the back of a US$27M production budget and has generated less than favourable critical reviews.

The film opens with a young Cameron 'Cam' Cade (Austin Pulliam) sat patiently in front of his big screen TV waiting for the American football final to begin. His favourite football team, the San Antonio Saviors win the league championship, but his joy turns to sadness when his quarterback idol, Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) suffers a compound fracture to his leg while scoring the game winning touchdown. Cam's father, Cam Snr. (Don Benjamin) tells him that real men are willing to make sacrifices. We then fast forward fourteen or so years and Cam (Tyriq Withers) is now a rising football star in his own right, and his father has passed away. Encouraged by his mother Yvette (Indira G. Wilson) and his girlfriend Adrienne (Tierra Whack) he trains for the league combine (a week-long showcase occurring every February where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Football League coaches, general managers, and scouts). One evening, while practicing late on an empty field, Cam is approached from behind but someone wearing a goat costume, who beats him over the head with a blunt instrument causing a head injury that has the potential to end his career aspirations.

Spurred on by his agent, Tom (Tim Heidecker), Cam plans to attend the combine to pursue the Saviors' quarterback position, despite the risk of permanent brain damage if he succumbs to another head injury. While overstimulated due to his concussion, Cam lashes out at his cousin and Tom, and refuses to take part in the combine. Tom later reveals that Isaiah is considering retirement with his contract due to expire at the end of the year, and has offered to train Cam for a week at a remote desert compound to prove himself a worthy successor. Cam accepts and travels there, encountering crazed Isaiah fans led by Marjorie (Naomi Grossman), who attempt to intimidate him out of replacing their hero. Cam meets Isaiah for the first time in person, and after introducing themselves and each bestowing complements on the other, they get down to the serious business of why Cam is there. 

At the compound, Isaiah puts Cam through disturbing challenges each day - with day #1 being Fun, Day #2 Poise, Day #3 being Respect, Day #4 being Leadership, Day #5 Vision and Day #6 Sacrifice. On one such day this includes a practice drill where a jugs machine repeatedly hits a player in the face causing a seriously blackened eye, a knocked out tooth and a lot of blood, but nonetheless seemingly pleased and honoured to have been of service. And on another occasion during a drill Cam severely headbutts another player, where that other player ends up writhing around on the ground concussed. 

Cam secretly receives shots of Isaiah's blood, which he is led to believe will boost his energy, and he subsequently experiences frequent hallucinations of masked figures, which he attributes to his own concussion. While in a sauna, Cam is attacked by Marjorie and overpowers her by almost choking her to death, before Isaiah arrives and emotionlessly kills her, much to Cam's consternation. As Cam tries to leave, Isaiah's wife, Elsie (Julia Fox), apologises for her husbands actions, and seduces him. Cam wakes the next morning to Isaiah holding him at gunpoint, demanding to know if Cam and Elsie slept together, which he denies. Isaiah ridicules Cam for feeling guilty about his girlfriend, telling him that winners have no remorse.

On the Thursday evening Elsie invites Cam to a secret party to meet the owners of the Saviors. Upon arrival, Marco (Jim Jefferies), the team doctor, whispers to Cam to 'run' before leaving. The owners toast Cam and give him a glass of a strange red liquid, which he knocks back in one go, unaware that it is in fact Isaiah's blood. A disoriented Cam wanders into a side room and finds Marco's severed head perched up on a table. Elsie comforts him as he loses consciousness. Cam wakes up later in an ice bath at Isaiah's compound, connected to an IV of Isaiah's blood. He rips out the IV, injects a syringe with the word 'run' handwritten on the side left by Marco, and grabs a heavy glass trophy, with the intent on killing Isaiah and escaping. 

Cam finds Isaiah watching a video of his adoring cheering fans. Isaiah reveals he is part of a line of manufactured 'Greatest of All Time' (GOAT) players who gain enhanced abilities from ritual blood transferred down a lineage from one GOAT player to the next. Isaiah tells Cam they must fight to the death with one GOAT transfusion victor. After a struggle, Cam beats Isaiah unconscious with a helmet which he repeats twice more before dropping the helmet and finishing the job with his bare fists.

Cam leaves the room bloodied, and steps onto a football field in the bright sunlight where he finds Elsie, the Saviors' owners, and Tom, all wearing animal masks. They present him with a contract to sign, sight unseen, revealing that Cam's father arranged for him to be the next GOAT. They explain that the earlier masked attack was staged to lead Cam to the Saviors. Cam refuses to sign the contract and, in a violent outburst, kills Elsie, all the owners, and the masked attacker, who is revealed to be Isaiah and Cam's trainer, Malek, using a dual hammer and spike, and sword. However, he spares Tom, who is subsequently dragged into a pentagram and destroyed by some unseen force. A blood soaked Cam walks past masked cheerleaders and marching band members and out of the compound. 

There's not too many films out there that attempt to blend a sport with the horror genre, and on this basis Director and Co-Writer Tipping and Writers Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie deserve kudos for giving it a go, and trying to deliver us something relatively new and fresh. The first two acts are solid enough, but by the time the third act ratchets into gear it's lost its way and the film gives way to an over the top violent bloodfest that we have seen hundreds of times before and that begs more questions than answers. Marlon Wayans carries this film on his broad shoulders and Tyriq Withers gives a more than passable performance, and as for Jordan Peele's contribution as Producer, lets just say that when the team doctor Marco tells Cam to 'run' he could just as well have said 'Get Out' and we would have known we were watching a Peele production! The film looks good, makes the most of its relatively modest budget of US$27M, but in the final analysis is all style over substance, and certainly won't go down in history as one of the GOAT.

'Him' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 2nd October 2025

The 36th edition of the Dinard British and Irish Film Festival takes place between Wednesday 1st and Sunday 5th October in the north western town of Dinard, in Brittany, France. With its international film festival, villas, sumptuous hotels and casino, Dinard is regarded as one of the most prestigious seaside resorts in all of France. Founded in 1989 by Thierry de la Fourniere, the British Film Festival introduces professionals and film buffs alike to the richness of a dynamic and original production. The Dinard British Film Festival and British film production have grown in parallel. As the number of films produced in Great Britain doubled in the early '90's, the Festival saw its reputation and attendance grow. From social chronicles to wacky comedies, British cinema is a force to be reckoned with. True to its original spirit, the Dinard Festival has become an important vector for all films wishing to conquer the European market. The event is also an opportunity for the many distributors present to discover films that will be able to find a network of theatres after the festival . . . so reads the official website.

This years Jury overseeing the Official Competition of five feature films comprises Jury President Rupert Everett ably supported by Ruby Wax and Jennifer Saunders amongst others. The Festival’s emblematic prize, the Golden Hitchcock is awarded by each year’s Jury to the best film in the selection, as well as the Hitchcock for Best Performance, the Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award to the film that viewers liked best.

Those five films are detailed in brief here :-

* 'Dragonfly' - from the UK and this drama film is Written and Directed by Paul Andrew Williams. Two troubled women form an uneasy relationship when the younger Colleen takes it upon herself to care for her elderly neighbour, Elsie. Against a backdrop of austerity, inadequate social care and fractured family relations, suspicions arise that Colleen's intentions may not be what they seem. Starring Andrea Riseborough, Brenda Blethyn and Jason Watkins.

* 'Mr. Burton' - from the UK and this biographical drama film is Directed by Marc Evans. The story of the relationship between Port Talbot schoolmaster Philip Burton and a wild young schoolboy called Richard Jenkins, the son of a wayward drunk, to become known worldwide as Richard Burton. Richard dreamed of becoming an Actor, but his ambitions were in danger of being derailed by family trouble, the pressure of war, and his own lack of discipline. Mr Burton recognised the raw talent in his pupil, becoming his tutor, strict taskmaster and eventually his adoptive father. Starring Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey and Lesley Manville.

* 'My Father's Shadow' - from the UK and Nigeria and this drama film is Co-Written and Directed by Akinola Davies Jnr. This semi-autobiographical story is set in a single day in the Nigerian megalopolis of Lagos during the 1993 electoral crisis. A father tries to guide his two young sons through the sprawling city as political unrest threatens. 

* 'The Damned' - from the UK, Iceland, Ireland, Belgium and the USA this folk horror film is Directed by Thordur Palsson. Fighting for survival at an isolated 19th-century Icelandic fishing outpost, the widow Eva and her crew are cursed after making a dramatic choice to not help a sinking ship off the coast and instead to let them perish. They face the consequences of chaos - a darkness of eerie visions and mysterious deaths which consumes them all. Starring Odessa Young, Joe Cole and Siobhan Finneran.

* 'The Thing with Feathers' - from the UK and this drama film is Written for the screen and Directed by Dylan Southern. A young father whose grip on reality crumbles after the death of his wife, as a strange presence begins to stalk him in the dark corners of the apartment he shares with his two young sons. This mysterious creature, known as 'Crow', who seems to have come to life in the pages of his illustrator's work, becomes a very real part of their lives, ultimately guiding them to the new shape the family must take. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, David Thewlis, Richard Boxall, Henry Boxall and Eric Lampaert.

For the other film strands being showcased, plus a whole lot of other good stuff, you can go to the official website at : https://www.dinardfestivaldufilm.fr/en/

Turning the attention then back to this weeks four new movies heading your way, we kick off (quite literally) with a supernatural spots horror film in which we follow the trials of a young up-and-coming American football player training at the isolated compound of an ageing, nearly retired quarterback. This is followed by a biographical sports drama film about an MMA fighter back in the early days of the sport who reaches the peak of his career, but faces personal hardships along the way. Next up we have a supernatural horror thriller film about a woman's obsessive search for her missing sister that leads her into a terrifying mystery at the hands of an unknown evil; before closing out the week with a family friendly comedy film from the UK about a troubled young girl who begins a new life with her tough aunt and discovers a supernatural talent that might help her win the contentious local pumpkin-growing contest.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'HIM' (Rated MA15+) - is an American supernatural psychological sports horror film that is Co-Written and Directed by Justin Tipping in only his second feature film Directing outing following 2016's 'Kicks'. He has Directed a number of TV series episodes including four episodes of 'Twenties' in 2020, three each of 'Flatbush Misdemeanours' and 'Run the World' in 2021, and four of 'Joe vs. Carole' in 2022. The film is Produced by Jordan Peele's ('Get Out', 'Us' and 'Nope') Monkeypaw Productions. The film was release in the US on 19th September, has so far grossed US$21M off the back of a US$27M production budget and has generated less than favourable critical reviews.

Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) is a rising quarterback who suffers a potentially career-ending injury after being attacked by an unhinged fan, and suffers a brain injury. Just when all seems lost, Cam receives a lifeline when his hero, the legendary quarterback for the San Antonio Saviors Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), offers to train him at an isolated compound. However, as the training accelerates, Isaiah's charisma turns into something darker, sending Cam down a disorienting rabbit hole that may cost him more than he ever bargained for. Also starring Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker and Jim Jefferies.

'THE SMASHING MACHINE' (Rated M) - this American biographical sports drama film is Written, Co-Produced, Directed and Edited by Benny Safdie whose previous feature film Directing credits, with his brother Josh, are their debut 'Daddy Longlegs' in 2009, 'Lenny Cooke' in 2013, 'Heaven Knows What' in 2014, 'Good Time' in 2017 and 'Uncut Gems' in 2019. This film is Benny Safdie's first solo Directing feature. This powerful true story of pioneering mixed martial arts/UFC fighter Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson), who helped grow the sport’s popularity in its early days, but the fights’ brutal demands took a toll, eventually leading to painkiller addiction. The constant need to travel, since the most lucrative early matches were always in Japan, didn’t help either, and standing by his side was his devoted partner Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt), tormented by the price he pays. Also starring Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten and Oleksandr Usyk, the film had its World Premiere showcasing in the main competition of this years Venice International Film Festival in early September where it won the Silver Lion. It is released in the US this week also, cost US$40M to produce and has generated positive critical reviews.

'SHELBY OAKS' (Rated CTC) - is an American supernatural horror thriller film that is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Chris Stuckmann in his feature length Directorial debut. The film follows Mia Brennan (Camille Sullivan) as she frantically searches for her sister Riley (Sarah Durn), who ominously disappeared in the last tape of her investigative series, ‘Paranormal Paranoids’. As Mia discovers new and disturbing leads related to Riley’s disappearance, she uncovers evidence of a hidden supernatural evil dating all the way back to her and Riley’s childhood. Also starring Brendon Sexton III, Michael Beach, Robin Bartlett and Keith David. The film had its World Premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in late July last year, is released here in Australia this week and in the US on 24th October, has generated mixed or average reviews and cost in the region of US$2M to produce.

'GROW' (Rated PG) - this UK family comedy film is Directed by John McPhail whose feature film credits take in his debut in 2015 with 'Where Do We Go from Here?', which he would follow up with 'Anna and the Apocalypse' in 2017 and then 'Dear David' in 2023. Here, a no-nonsense farmer, Dinah Little (Golda Rosheuvel) living in the self-proclaimed 'Pumpkin Capital of the World', takes in her estranged niece Charlie (Priya-Rose Brookwell). Charlie decides to enter the local pumpkin growing competition where she and the other pumpkin growers face fierce competition, sabotage and a genetically engineered rival. As she nurtures her pumpkin 'Peter' and watches him grow, so does her bond with the townsfolk, farm and her new way of life. Also starring Nick Frost, Tim McInnerny, Jane Horrocks and Joe Wilkinson. The film was released in the UK in mid-August and is released Stateside this week too. 

With four new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-