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.
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