The Fantasia Festival in Montreal, Canada, is always a wild ride in terms of film concepts and out-there horrors and thrillers. The second I saw that not only Steven Ogg but professional wrestler Chris Jericho was staring in Dark Match, a wrestling-themed horror flick, I needed no more information. I was sold. We have Glow and The Iron Claw, but now it’s Dark Match’s turn. Although I can’t speak to the rest of Fantasia outright, at the moment, this is by far my favourite thing to come out of the festival so far, though it is still early.
Because this is the world premiere of Dark Match, I’ll be keeping this review short and sweet and hopefully mostly spoiler-free. Dark Match is a story about an amateur wrestling company that gets invited to a seedy-feeling last-minute gig that will make the boss a ton of money quickly. What could possibly go wrong? Things feel amiss to the company as soon as they arrive, and things only get stranger from there.
“I feel like the less you know going into Dark Match, the better…”
Anything wrestling has the potential to become absolutely ridiculous, and adding obscure horror to the mix had me both intrigued and concerned, yet somehow, Dark Match pulls it all off—for the most part. Our cast includes a series of wrestling misfits that anyone who isn’t a fan of the WWE or something similar will absolutely scoff at, but each actor really owns their role.
Of course, Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead, Grand Theft Auto V) and Jericho are the names that will pull people into Dark Match, but I was pleasantly surprised by Ayisha Issa, who plays Miss Behave, one of the heels in the ring. Playing a hardened woman in a very male-dominated industry could easily have come off as unlikeable and abrasive. Instead, Issa is relatable, and you find yourself rooting for her very quickly, even as she is pitted against who I’d describe as America’s Sweetheart, Kate the Great, played by Sara Canning.
“What I can say is Dark Match takes a very warped spin on wrestling, and there are some twists and turns I did not see coming.”
Again, I feel like the less you know going into Dark Match, the better, so I want to stay away from specific plot points and relationships. What I can say is Dark Match takes a very warped spin on wrestling, and there are some twists and turns I did not see coming. Chris Jericho will probably not be following in Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s (Black Adam) or Kevin Nash’s (John Wick) footprints with a budding film career, but the wrestling entertainer corniness that his character The Prophet needed was perfect and blended well with the overall tone of the film.
Was it flawless? No, of course not. I feel that sometimes horror films opt to ignore the “less is more” mantra and Dark Match falls victim to this. I was on board with everything until the final scene, where I wish they would have just ended it a minute sooner.
That being said, Dark Match is everything you could want aside from that one quick scene, with all the gore, rage and cheese that I want from a wrestling horror flick.
