Sean Parker
Wrestling and horror are two peas in a pod. The legacy of performers who have traded in their spandex shorts for big film roles may begin with Tor Johnson. Johnson was a Swedish wrestler getting bit parts in the 1930s before breaking out in Ed Wood’s schlocky 1955 film Bride of the Monster. Then, luchador Santo would star in an unprecedented seventeen films, sometimes fighting Zombies, Frankenstein’s Daughter, Martian Invaders, Vampire Women, and more. Recently, more WWE stars have been prominently breaking out of the ring. Sure, The Rock and Dave Bautista are everywhere now, but Chris Jericho is ramping up his appearances in horror roles, appearing in Terrifier’s 2 and 3, Kevin Smith’s Killroy Was Here, and bringing it all back to the ring in this week’s Shudder premiere, Dark Match.
Dark Match takes place in 1980, when wrestling was still a very regional event but growing in popularity every day. Dusty Rhodes and Sgt. Slaughter are huge names, and an up-and-comer named Hulk Hogan predicts he’ll be the face of ’80s wrestling. During this time, there were many other big wrestling leagues besides the W.W.F. (now WWE). Prominent leagues like the NWA and the AWA gave the McMahons a run for their money, while little ones like Dark Match’s SAW are trying to be part of the conversation. For SAW, there’s no one better in the ring than Nick (Ayisha Issa), aka “Miss Behave.” She’s a top-tier athlete breaking her bones to give the crowd a show; there’s only one problem: They hate her. Being the league’s greatest heel may provide its own psychological detriment, but being a black woman in search of the belt in 1980 is an impossible glass ceiling.
When Nick is fined for ruining rising superstar Kate the Great’s (The Vampire Diaries’ Sara Canning) chances of being poached by a more prominent league after a violent outburst in the ring, she looks for comfort in the arms of her boyfriend, Joe Lean (The Walking Dead’s Steven Ogg). However, the need to keep their relationship a secret from their racially insensitive fanbase only causes a further internal dilemma for Nick.
When SAW promoter Rusty (Final Destination 2’s Jonathan Cherry) receives a call asking to host an untelevised fight, aka a Dark Match, he’s pretty quick to try to weasel his way out of it, that is, until they agree to the outlandish amount he asks for. Needing to square her income for the month, Nick agrees to a Dark Match rematch with Kate, and she and the rest of the SAW wrestlers head to a remote, rural location where they discover an ex-wrestler turned cult leader (Jericho) has turned the art of professional stunt showmanship into bloodsport.
Writer-director Lowell Dean’s (Wolfcop, Die Alone) Dark Match has been an indie film festival darling for the past year, which, unfortunately, I kept skipping over on the circuit. I’ve seen many attempts to blend wrestling and horror, resulting in not-so-great outcomes. Having gone round after round with films like Monster Brawl, Wrestlemaniac, Powerbomb, and Masked Mutilator, I admit I was hesitant. However, I immediately realized my mistake after catching Dark Match on Shudder the other night. Dark Match can get a “Hell Yeah!” from me any day. While essentially a twist on Green Room, swapping out the neo-nazis for backwoods cultists and the punk band for wrestlers fighting to the death, it never tries to replicate the same serious tone. Instead, it delivers a wildly entertaining body slam of B-movie fun through a frantic mix of wrestling action and cultish terror. It’s an ’80s throwback through and through.
I have a deep appreciation for the story and character work that Dean accomplishes. He must truly love wrestling. While we decisively get to know Nick and Joe outside the ring, the perspective is entirely from the heel’s point of view. Side characters like Enigma Jones (Mo Adan) and the bible-thumping tag team Thick & Thin (Jonathan Lepine and Justin Lawrick) end up embodying their wrestling personas, which works in their favor against the good guy squad, who seem amenable to the terms of Dark Match’s mortal combat. Having the wrestling backdrop for this over-the-top battle to the death couldn’t work better, as it allows Miss Behave and Kate the Great’s drama, both in and out of the ring, to become fused together to great effect and invites an escalating spectacle of stakes and storylines to take shape right up until the credits roll.
Also, it’s time we really start giving Steven Ogg more credit in the horror world. Most prominently known by Walking Dead fans as Negan’s right-hand man, Simon, Ogg has done a slew of genre-intensive work. His roles in Westworld, Snowpiercer, Grand Theft Auto V, V/H/S/99, Divinity, and Scared Shitless are just a fraction of his notable work in a career that spans over twenty-five years. Ogg is often cast in side roles as a villain, but as Joe Lean, he gets to upend even his filmography’s heel personas and shine as the likable character we’re rooting for, which is such a fantastic change of pace.
You can’t help but be on his side as Joe Lean ascends to the title match. While I generally loved the performances from Ayisha Issa and Michael Eklund, who is another great performer often typecast as a villain (The Divide, Nurse, Cold Pursuit, Bates Motel, Bright Hill Road, etc.) Ogg just knocks it out of the park. And if you like his performance in this as much as I did, be sure to check him out in Scared Shitless, where you’ll also have fun rooting for him.
While some social commentary is definitively baked into Dark Match’s story, the pressure here is cast on the concept of good vs. evil, where being the on-screen bad guy doesn’t necessarily define who that person is. The subtle racial aspects and the markings of early toxic fandom exist, albeit without the soapbox of the internet to push it into overdrive. But, for the most part, we’re watching a tested concept imaginatively filtered through the world of professional wrestling. It may subtly make you rethink your hatred for certain characters and consider their off-screen struggles. Regardless, Dark Match is an absolute blast, and that’s the bottom line… because Sean Parker said so.
Dark Match is now streaming on Shudder.
