Dark Match (Chris Jericho) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Wrestling horror taps out - video Dailymotion

Film Brain

Film Brain gets into the ring with this wrestling horror movie, but despite teaming up Chris Jericho with the director of Wolfcop, it isn't close to winning the title belt.

Transcript

00:00Chris Jericho is raising some hell in Shudder's wrestling horror movie, Darkmatch.

00:06Set in 1988, Aisha Issa's Miss Behave works for a federation called SAW and hopes for a title shot.

00:13Their shady promoter gets them a gig in a remote town, which turns out to be a cult

00:18led by Chris Jericho as The Prophet, and they'll have to fight for their lives.

00:23Darkmatch is refereed by the Whale Dean, who previously directed the Wolf Cop films,

00:27and this joins a small sub-genre of wrestling themed horror films. I've seen a few over the

00:32years like Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies, and they're usually not very good. This is no exception.

00:38You can tell Dean is a bit of a wrestling fan because there are a few nods from a pair of

00:42tag teams who resemble Wright D'Senza in The Legion of Doom, to Miss Behave's boyfriend

00:46Jolene, played by Steve Ogg, being reminiscent of Jesse Ventura. There's a few interesting ideas

00:52here, like the fact the protagonists are actually the heels and vice versa, or that the sacrifices

00:56are gimmick matches themed around elements, which, if you really stretch, you could interpret

01:01as a commentary on the increasing sensationalism and bloodlust of wrestling as it moved into the

01:0690s. But none of that really comes to anything because the script is woefully underwritten,

01:11to the point where a key revelation midway through is not only poorly implemented,

01:16it turns out to be largely pointless. It really should have leaned into the camp and sensationalism

01:21of wrestling, but everything is just kind of middle of the road. The matches aren't exciting

01:26or well choreographed, the kills are practical and bloody, but not memorable, and Dean mostly

01:31evokes the 80s by throwing lots of neon colours everywhere. They should have had way more fun

01:36with this premise and go full Mortal Kombat with it, especially when you've got Chris Jericho

01:41telling people to FINISH HIM, but instead it's just kinda boring. And yeah, that's most of what

01:47Jericho does here, just sitting around on the sidelines, not really doing much of anything

01:52until the finale when he finally steps into the ring like you've been waiting for. Jericho's hugely

01:57charismatic in the ring, but he hardly brings any of that to his cult leader and he just feels

02:02massively underutilised. There's a few fleeting moments of what this could have been, like a

02:06wrestler faking his death because of kayfabe, or the bonkers final scene, but otherwise,

02:12it puts the audience in the sleeper hold.

Dark Match (Chris Jericho) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Wrestling horror taps out

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