You don’t have to be a fan of professional wrestling to know this but if you are, you know it’s true. Pro wrestling is a cult. I say that as someone who has been watching it, practically every day of my life, for more than 40 years and is very much in the cult myself. It’s a very isolated society that most on the outside frown upon but to those who love it, pro wrestling encourages the kind of following that’s close to a religious experience. Dark Match director Lowell Dean understands all of this, blending the world of sports entertainment (as Vinny Mac so divisively named it) with cult horror for a gruesome, grindhouse battle royale that should be a hit with wrestling and genre fans alike.
Dean, an admitted fan of old-school pro wrestling, sets Dark Match in the late ’80s, but if you’re looking for the WWF’s colorful Rock ‘n Wrestling heyday, think again. This is purely indie circuit stuff, when small companies were more like traveling circus road shows entertaining rabid fans in tiny, backwater towns before moving on to the next. It’s a fitting setup for Dean’s retro rumble, which finds one such wrestling company hired by a mysterious benefactor for a big-money private gig only to get a lot more bloodshed than your average Mick Foley hardcore match.
Badass Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion Ayisha Issa stars as Nick, or as she’s known in the ring, Miss Behave. A physically intimidating heel accustomed to getting booed out of buildings, she’s nonetheless frustrated by the racist undertones she feels are part of the business, especially as she often is forced to lose to prissy blonde babyface Kate the Great (Sarah Canning). She doesn’t get a lot of support from their shady manager Rusty Beans (Jonathan Cherry), and her on again/off again romantic relationship with veteran grappler Mean Joe Lean (Steven Ogg) is a source of confusion.
Rightfully, Dean casts this motley group as the kind of makeshift family that often forms during the wrestling circuits. Nick is especially fond of the silent masked luchadore Enigma (Mo Adan), and Wolf Cop favorite Leo Fafard as the colorfully-named Lazarus Smashley. The costuming is delightfully DIY and has that authentic stitched-by-hand quality. None of these folks are ever going to get rich where they’re at. Anything they want or need they have to do for themselves.
Unfortunately, that will soon also mean fighting for survival. The venue looks more like a Branch Dividian compound than a place for professional wrestling. The locals are partying hard in celebration of sacrifice and some strange rite of rebirth, led by the charismatic Prophet, played by AEW superstar and pro wrestling legend Chris Jericho. Whether caught up in the promise of a massive payday, or delirious from illicit party drugs, nobody is wise enough to get the Hell out of dodge, not even when Rusty finds himself branded like cattle by the vicious hosts.
From there, every contest is “No DQ” and to the death against opponents eager to set them on fire or shred them with broken glass. The jig is up when the aptly named tag team Thick & Thin leaves the ring in body bags, and soon Nick, Joe, and the gang are wrestling like their lives depend on it. Dean wisely keeps Prophet’s true motivations a secret, and while the plot gets unnecessarily convoluted, he still makes a fascinating heel. Jericho’s a consummate showman and he has shown in his recent wrestling personas to be someone who can lead a bunch of loyal followers to do crazy things. He brings a lot of that skill in the crafting of Prophet, who is more than just some weird cult leader. His roots are in wrestling and that shows. While many of the supporting characters are one-dimensional and leave a lot to be desire, Prophet, Miss Behave, and Mean Joe are fleshed out enough that we can rally to their various causes.
The athleticism is well-performed, especially by Issa, and shot in searing, dusty neon hues by DP Karim Hussain, known for his stellar work with Brandon Cronenberg. Dean is having a lot of fun with the grisly match types, and the carnage gets thick for the gore hounds out there. He strikes a nice balance between dark humor and B-movie thrills, while the actors are largely asked to kick ass and play it straight. Issa’s Miss Behave is such a compelling, dominant force that you want to see her character live on for future sequels. I’ve never thought of Steven Ogg much other than his role on The Walking Dead, but I really like how he depicts Mean Joe Lean as a broken-down former main eventer who has seen the worst and lived through it.
Dark Match was always going to be right in my wheelhouse, and it definitely connected with me. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and packs silly humor, brutal body slams, and wrestling jargon that fans can mark out over. Wrestling and genre cinema are very niche, and Dark Match will appeal to a specific audience who will go nuts for it.
Shudder premieres Dark Match on January 31st.