Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: DARK MATCH [Fantasia Film Festival 2024 - Montreal, Quebec]
Wrestling movies and horror per se do not often go together. With “Dark Match",” writer/director Lowell Dean does seem to find a balance. But, in many ways, it is by creating such a diverse cast with an underlying world and prejudice that is right on point without fully hitting it on the head. Alyssa Issa plays Jackie/Miss Behave in a role not unlike, in a way, “Love Lies Bleeding” but with way more accessibility. She is very nicely paired with Michael Ogg as an aging wrestler whose past in a way comes back to haunt him. .Oddly enough, the structure has the cartoon baseline of say the characters in “Punch Out!” but with way more subtlety and brutality. The Dark Match is a hire of amateur wrestlers out in the middle of nowhere for key match-ups which seems suspect from the beginning but the line it draws betweeen cult and believers is interesting.
The motivations are fairly surface and there are cliches but there are enough cinematic. moments to make it work. One particular one with some slow motion elements to an unlikely wrestling anthem works well. The concept of a bigger world never quite really takes shape until the last moment which is part of the point. Wrestling star Chris Jericho’s presence gives it creedence but is interesting how much it uses him as symbolic placeholder for a host of different metaphors instead of an icon of sorts. “Dark Martch” pushes on a series of ambitions delivering on many while staying abreast of its pulpy roots. B
By Tim Wassberg
