Wrestling with genres

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This article was published 31/01/2025 (589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In this deliberately deranged Canadian horror flick, Saskatchewan filmmaker Lowell Dean (WolfCop, Die Alone) taps into the hammy overlap between low-rent indie wrestling and no-budget B-movies, tossing in a backwoods satanic cult for good measure.

It’s a barn-burning bit of Canuxploitation, leaning into its ’80s VHS-tape esthetic and enjoying its violent grindhouse gore with a blend of enthusiasm and comic irony. Dean has some good characters, brought to bone-crunching, smack-talking life by strong performances.

Still, as wrestling fans might say, he needs a better angle.

It’s the late 1980s, and skeevy small-time wrestling promoter Rusty (Jonathan Cherry) runs a crew of mostly has-beens and never-wills. When the cash-strapped Rusty gets a lucrative offer for a gig in a remote rural community, he jumps on it.

Unfortunately, Rusty and his wrestlers are heading into a secretive compound run by “The Prophet” (played by Winnipeg-raised pro wrestler and actor Chris Jericho).

The raspy-voiced cult leader and his followers like their wrestling hardcore. Extremely hardcore. Soon the wrestlers will be fighting for their lives.

Everyone loves a heel, and our heroes all play bad guys inside the ring. Nick, a.k.a. Miss Behave, is played by Montreal-born actor and stuntperson Ayisha Issa, and going by this performance, she should be headed to the A-show.

Issa is impressive in the physically demanding fight scenes, but she’s equally compelling as her character navigates the systemic racism and sexism of the wrestling world, circa 1988. It doesn’t feel like an accident that Nick is billed as the “Trinidadian Trickster” and pitted against good girl Kate the Great (Sara Canning from War for the Planet of the Apes), who happens to be white and blond.

Nick is in a tentative romantic relationship with veteran wrestler Mean Joe Lean (played by character actor Steven Ogg of The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul), and she’s friends with Enigma Jones (pro wrestler Mo Adan), who stays in character as a completely silent masked luchador, even outside the ring.

At first sight, the compound seems like a rowdy but harmless free-for-all of sex and drugs and rock ’n’ roll. Something is off, though. Maybe it’s Joe’s suspicion that he’s seen the cult leader before. Maybe it’s Nick’s nightmarish premonitions. Maybe it’s the green Jell-O at the breakfast buffet.

By the time the friends realize there’s no escape, it becomes clear that the evening’s entertainment is going to be a series of literal death matches, all part of an arcane satanic ritual.

The wrestling sequences are crunchy and bloody, giving a twisted meaning to Rusty’s encouragement to his wrestlers to “leave it all out there.”

Outside the ring, Dean relies on a cheap and cheerful retro look, with lurid lighting and garish colours.

Unfortunately, Dark Match struggles to set up its main monster. Jericho has a poignant moment when he defends “the showmanship and the sacrifice” of wrestling. When The Prophet says, “I defy anyone watching to call what we do fake,” you feel the sweat and blood of Jericho’s real-life years in the ring. But The Prophet — and his murky motivations — need more screentime. He’s the real heel here, after all, and he needs more scenery chewing, more chair throwing.

The whole issue of what’s going on with the cult also needs more development. Some of the higher-ups are shown to be true believers, and some are just looking to manipulate and profit from the mob.

This is where the script’s thematic hits could be harder. As the notion of “kayfabe” — the tacit agreement that fans will accept wrestling as genuine while knowing it to be staged entertainment — increasingly spreads into our culture and our politics, the squared circle provides a handy metaphorical platform.

Dark Match’s wrestling sequences are entertaining, but the film could do a lot more with the smackdown between what’s real and what’s fake.

The Sunday 7 p.m. showing will include a Q&A session with writer-director Lowell Dean and cast members Ayisha Issa, Jonathan Cherry and Justin Lawrick.

arts@freepress.mb.ca