Dark Match (2024)


I am not a professional wrestling fan.  Nor am I fan of wrestling in any form.  I understand it's silly entertainment for many, and it's not snobbery on my part.  It just never clicked with me.  Thus, seeing that the Canadian film Dark Match was a horror film about wrestling, I was a bit reluctant to see it as it's completely out of my wheelhouse.  However, what Shudder forgot to do was to include a little note saying that this was from the guy who did Wolfcop, a frenetic horror comedy that is exactly what the title implies.  While quite a bit less of an assault on the senses as that film it would have at least allayed many of my fears. 

Rusty (Jonathan Cherry) is a small-time wrestling promoter whose organization S.A.W. employs a number of minor performers that do a regional circuit.  One of this is Miss Behave (Ayisha Issa), who though still young is slowly watching her career slip away, especially as a new addition named Kate the Great (Sara Canning) attracts all the attention during the women's match.  After getting fed up and breaking Kate's nose she is fined.  However, when Rusty gets an offer to come to an isolated match for 50 thousand dollars, he offers her a chance to earn some money back.

When they arrive they soon realize that things are a bit off.  The compound is controlled by the Leader (Chris Jericho) and it turns out that much of the staff is armed.  The wrestlers, including Miss Behave's boyfriend Joe (Steven Ogg) and a masked mute named Enigma (Mo Adan), find themselves held hostage and forced to fight to the death against their friends.  They soon find out the reason is that the Leader believes that sacrificing wrestlers in the ring will help summon Satan to Earth. 

It's not the most original plot but director Lowell Dean has a lot of fun with it.  Steven Ogg is always a great character actor to have and Chris Jericho loves chewing the scenery when he gets to be in a horror film.  He's not the greatest actor but he is great as the bad guy.  The best, of course, is Ayisha Issa.  She has been in a number of horror films and is one of those Canadian actresses that one frequently recognizes.

Another great thing about having Jericho and a handful others with wrestling experience is that they know how to do the moves and make it believable that this would be a tight unit of "faces" and "heels" that have spent years working together, although many were near the end of their careers.  It also makes the production feel like it has a bigger budget than it does.  It certainly is a bit more put together than some of Dean's previous films.

The whole thing comes together as a predictable but still satisfying story that has a great ending.  It was a bit of a stretch for me at first but Dean's love of genre films and a great cast helped elevate this above being just another low-budget streaming offering. 

Dark Match (2024)
Time: 94 minutes
Starring: Ayisha Issa, Steven Ogg, Chris Jericho
Director: Lowell Dean

 

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