A wrestling horror movie may not sound like a lot of fun, but I suppose if you like wrestling and/or horror then you may get something from it. That would be the theroy anyway, and the presence of Chris Jericho certainly shows that writer-director Lowell Dean wants wrestling fans to have fun with this. I'm not sure they will.
A group of wrestlers are signed up for a job by their pretty useless manager (Rusty, played by Jonathan Cherry) that will leave them fighting for a small crowd in the middle of nowhere. The pay seems decent though, but only until everyone figures out exactly what is going on. This isn't just a series of wrestling matches. It's all designed to appease a cult and progress their nefarious plan.
Aside from Ayihsa Issa and Steven Ogg, who I am picking as nominal leads here, Dark Match suffers from the fact that too few of the characters are worth caring about. Cherry plays his part with gusto, and he's fun, but you don't care about him. Mo Adan, Sara Canning, Michael Eklund, Stephanie Wolf, Jonathan Lepine, Justin Lawrick, and even Jericho himself don't have enough to work with in order to stand out. Okay, the latter gets a scheming panto villain moment here and there, but it's not any fun. And this film should have at least aimed to be fun.
Despite the fact that I am not into wrestling, I see why people are drawn to it. The athleticism, the showmanship, the ongoing soap opera that sets up so many different battles with different stakes. Those who are really into it tend to be DEEP into it, which is why no 94-minute movie could hope to compare. There's no attachment to anyone here, despite some of their recent history being mentioned or hinted at, and that means it's hard to really feel invested in any of the wrestling matches.
Dean does okay with his budget and resources, I guess, but it doesn't take long to notice that the two main sets are the wrestling ring and a dressing room area. Things are shot clearly enough though, and the action is visible and easy to follow, if also disappointingly dull.
I didn't find this painful or overlong, but I did spend a lot of time just waiting for everything to be wrapped up so I could end it and get on with the rest of my day. And the ending was pretty dire, considering it just reminded me of a Tenacious D music video. So I won't ever want to rewatch this, and I cannot think of anyone I would highly recommend it to. Issa, Ogg, and Cherry are the highlights. Everything else is just a bit . . . blah.
3/10
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