The biggest sport in the US, by some margin, is American football. It is one of those sports that only Americans get, with the rest of the world more than happy to let them keep it.

It’s no surprise then that that a number of American football films and TV shows pop up every now and then, with some of the most popular being 1999’s Any Given Sunday, 2004’s Friday Night Lights, and 2009’s The Blind Side.

Although this film is about an up and coming football star, it’s more sports adjacent, as it attempts to explore more darker, supernatural themes.

All through his childhood, Cam (Tiriq Withers) has been a big fan of football, with his team being the San Antonio Saviors. He looks up at their quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), who despite having a career-threatening injury, managed to continue playing.

Cam becomes good at the sport, so much so that he’s actually approached by Isaiah, who is considering him a replacement for his position in the team. He invites him to his home for an extensive week of training that pushes Cam beyond his usual training, into a whole new world of pain and a realm of dark mysticism.

This is a fairly late follow-up to Justin Tipping’s 2016 directorial debut Kicks, with the rest of his time since having direct TV shows.

The fact that this isn’t an out an out US football film might be a relief for audiences outside the US, but unfortunately the horror route it takes isn’t successful.

You get the impression that Tipping had a delusion of grandeur whilst making this film, which is visually appealing, seemingly paying a homage to certain horror films of the seventies, like Rosemary’s Baby. The art direction and cinematography are bold, and striking in places, but sadly do all the heavy lifting with the script being very much on the wimp side.

Tipping’s focus is all on the relationship between Cam and his idol/mentor Isaiah, which initially is of interest, but the longer it drags on, with it believing it’s delivering something substantial, the more it distance itself from audiences.

And when it eventually reveals its supernatural hand, it’s all too ethereal, vaguely hinting at religious themes, but in a very hackneyed and unconvincing fashion.

The director is possibly hoping to have his two main characters hold the attention of audiences throughout, but their ongoing relationship just isn’t enough to do that.

It doesn’t help that he mixes metaphors all the way through, from Jesus and the devil, to gladiators in an arena, to the usual sports ones. It so badly wants to be seen as menacing and unsettling, but despite being pleasingly cinematic, Tipping struggles on the basics of allowing the narrative to convey the story.

He may well get a hail Mary – which, ironically enough is also a US football term – with one of the film’s producers Jordan Peele being mis-credited as the film’s actual director, which seemingly encouraged his fan base to the cinema to see it, only to get greatly disappointed.

Tipping shows a talent for visuals with only his second film, but as far as story is concerned he proves himself to have butter fingers as he constantly dropped the ball with this one.