Dark Match review
Shudder’s latest marries horror with pro wrestling to mixed results.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Dark Match
Directed by Lowell Dean
Written by Lowell Dean
Starring Steven Ogg, Michael Eklund, Sara Canning, Chris Jericho, Jonathan Cherry, Ayisha Issa, Leo Fafard and Mo Adan
Dark Match Review
Pro wrestling and horror movies feel like they should mix better than they traditionally have. Good guys fight to overcome the dastardly, evil bad guys. They’re both shunned by swaths of people who think it’s B-level entertainment. And, most importantly, they both have loyal, rabid fanbases. As a lifelong fan of both…I can tell you with authority that fans of each have a lot in common. It’s no surprise then that people often find themselves a part of both. I’ve always thought it came down to that feeling of loving something that society as a whole looks down upon. It’s easier to get along with someone who loves what you love…especially when others consider it lower class entertainment. Wrestling and Horror fans have proven time and again, in my experience, to be among the kindest and most inclusive people in the world.
Why then, have horror movies about pro wrestling so often struggled to work? The answer is probably as simple as budget…and talent. Studios aren’t looking to bet on the intersection of two niche products…and Oscar worthy talent isn’t banging down the door to make a wrestling based slasher movie. Cheap is, probably, the best way to describe most of what’s come from this specific subgenre of film. There’s also the handicap of using actual wrestlers in several of the movies. Wrestlers are great at being wrestlers. Not so much at acting.
Last year’s Here for Blood gave us some hope. It was a very fun movie about a pro wrestler fighting off the power of darkness. It was also smart enough to cast an actor as the wrestler. Trust me, it helps. Dark Match, the latest original offering from Shudder, casts actors in most of its key roles as well. To the surprise of no one…it helps. AEW star Chris Jericho is the one bit of stunt casting…but even he has some experience in front of a film camera.
Jericho plays the big bad in Dark Match. A blacklisted former star known as The Prophet who has turned to the occult. He, and his followers, plan to raise the devil by providing a series of elemental based sacrifices. To do so, they hire a struggling independent wrestling promotion to stage a show for them. With all matches fought to the death.
The promotion in question here is the fictional SAW. Dark Match is set in 1988…and SAW is purported to be one of the last territories still operating with a local TV deal. They have a tiny roster that makes filling that TV time pretty much impossible, in my view. They have two tag teams (The Beast Brothers and “bible thumping hooligans” Thick and Thin), two female wrestlers (Miss Behave and Kate the Great) and four male singles stars (Kid Humble, Lazarus Smashley, Enigma Jones and Mean Joe Lean). The TV show must just be the same matches every week.
This doesn’t really matter, of course. What matters is that the crew is set up for a disastrous untelevised performance by The Prophet. Untelevised…but not unfilmed. There’s a bit more to The Prophet’s plan than the resurrection of evil. His motives shift over the course Dark Match…in a way that more or less makes sense.
Wrestling is presented in Dark Match as a choreographed routine. The wrestlers openly communicate in the ring during their matches. That is until the fights turn real and only one person can walk out alive. Miss Behave (Ayisha Issa) and Mean Joe Lean (Steven Ogg) take center stage among Dark Match’s crew. Miss Behave covets the SAW title…something used well as a metaphor for the opportunities to rise up the promotion that she has failed to receive…but makes little sense as a practical story device. SAW appears to have only the one title…and they don’t appear to do intergender matches. I’m not sure how she’s supposed to achieve this goal in Kayfabe.
Issa and Ogg are very good here. The ensemble is as well. The quality of the acting gives Dark Match a leg up on most independent wrestling-based horror movies. I was engaged with the story from the start (mostly due to Issa’s performance as Miss Behave) …but there were some pacing issues and lighting choices that caused some struggles. Oddly, Dark Match hits the rough pacing patches when the action hits the ring. Quick cutaways from wrestling to the death to people watching to other character’s shenanigans rarely let you get a solid foothold in the second half of the movie.
The element-based matches (wind, water, earth, fire, spirit) aren’t the most imaginative things…but they’re a means to a sacrificial ritual…not trying to sell you a ticket. Basically…they have some gimmick matches with sprinklers going off or fans blowing or…fire…being fire. It culminates in a steel cage topped with barbed wire. Somehow symbolizing spirit, I guess. Let’s just say the wrestling action isn’t the highlight of Dark Match.
Still, I found Dark Match strangely appealing. It has some likable characters to root for against some you’ll easily hate. There are some story twists…and babyfaces fighting back against evil. You know, the way pro wrestling works.
Scare Value
Dark Match is a step down from Shudder’s recent original releases. But I can’t say I wasn’t entertained by it. Some solid characters fighting off an evil cult against a pro wrestling backdrop is an entertaining premise that Dark Match delivers enough on to recommend a watch.
2.5/5
Dark Match Link
Streaming on Shudder
