When I first confirmed that I would be covering the Fantasia Film Festival this year, there were two movies I knew for sure that I wanted to see. The first was Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks (you can read my spoiler free review of that right here) and the other was the focus of this review: Lowell Dean’s Dark Match. 

If movies are my first love, wrestling is a close second. Luckily for me, Dark Match brings these two things together! As if that wasn’t enough, this also is a Canadian production loaded with Canadian talent. That includes writer/director Lowell Dean (Wolfcop), current All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star Chris Jericho, Ayisha Issa, and Steven Ogg (Grand Theft Auto V, Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead).

Dark Match is a horror action-thriller that takes place in the 1980s. The plot synopsis reads:

“A small-time wrestling company accepts a well-paying gig in a backwoods town only to learn, too late, that the community is run by a mysterious cult leader with devious plans for their match.”

For those of you less versed in the wrestling world than myself, the term “dark match” is used to describe a match that isn’t filmed or televised. Cleverly, it serves an extra purpose given the culty nature of the movie, but I will say at the top here that I was thrilled by the level of detail about wrestling in this movie. During the conversation with the cast and crew after our screening, Chris Jericho even remarked to Lowell Dean that after he read the script, he was so impressed with the details, he thought he wrote it himself! 

But rest assured, this isn’t a movie that relies on you having any real knowledge about wrestling to enjoy. Much of the cast and even Dean himself noted that they weren’t immersed in wrestling before they started making the movie. The idea came to Dean after a friend brought him to a wrestling show in Canada, and he found himself fully immersed in what he was watching and seeing just how passionate the rest of the audience was. They had so much passion, in fact, Dean noted it felt “cult like,” and thus, Dark Match was born! 

The theatre was packed, the crowd was energized, and a ton of the cast and crew were here for the world premiere at Fantasia. If you want to follow all of our coverage of the festival, be sure to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter)!

So was Dark Match main event material or was watching it like taking an elbow from the top rope?

My Thoughts

Not only is this main event material, it’s championship worthy because this movie was an absolute blast from start to finish! I can’t imagine anything I see during the rest of Fantasia will be as fun as this movie was.

Let’s start off with the cast, because just wow. Everyone was fantastic here and not one person felt out of place. The pleasant surprise for me was getting to see Canadian actress Ayisha Issa for the first time. She plays Miss Behave (I will be using kayfabe names only in this review 😎), and she was absolutely stupendous. When you have stars like Chris Jericho and Steven Ogg in your movie, it can be to the detriment of your movie if the rest of the cast can’t match what they can bring to it. That definitely wasn’t a problem for Issa, who was so great and so likable that I missed her whenever she wasn’t on screen. She was a captivating lead and played a variety of different sides of Miss Behave, and I hope to see her in more things after this. 

Steven Ogg was another beaming high point of this movie. Like most of you, I became familiar with Ogg for his portrayal of Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V. He was easily the best performance in a game full of them and I was ecstatic to see him pop up a few times in Better Call Saul as well. He’s just so captivating on screen, and while his characters in those works aren’t exactly pillars of their community, this was my first time seeing a more human side of Ogg. Ironically, he plays “Mean” Joe Lean in Dark Match, but this really is a case of kayfabe as outside the ring, Joe Lean is a very sweet and nice guy. Also, one small note, every single time I heard his name in the movie, I kept thinking of the song “Jolene” by Dolly Parton. After the screening, Lowell Dean confirmed that was absolutely intentional because when he was a kid he thought the song was about a man named Joe Lean. 

I also want to acknowledge the rest of the supporting cast as well, because they all did a fantastic job too. Leo Fafard, Jonathan Cherry, Michael Eklund, Sara Canning, and Mo Adan, who got some of the loudest pops in the entire movie. 

Last, but certainly not least, let’s talk about Chris Jericho! Jericho is known for having one of the longest and most consistent runs in wrestling history, and I was intrigued by his casting for this movie. Despite having acted in a few different things, Jericho has avoided acting in movies about wrestling. He confirmed as much tonight, but said he signed onto Dark Match, because he believed there was more here than a simple wrestling movie (and boy, is he right about that). Jericho plays The Prophet, the leader of the mysterious cult that brings our wrestlers out to the middle of nowhere for a show. Jericho is used very well here, as his presence becomes more prominent as the movie progresses. While he clearly enjoys hamming it up, he also gets some moments to be a bit more serious as well. Jericho later pointed out something I noticed and appreciated while watching the movie: he deliberately avoided performing the moves that the real Jericho typically does in a wrestling ring. While good for a cheap pop, it definitely would be distracting and take the focus away from the movie itself, so kudos to Jericho for exercising that restraint!

Next, I want to talk about writer/director Lowell Dean. I have to admit, I have not seen his Wolfcop movies, but I will definitely be checking them out after this. What struck me most about hearing him talk before and after the movie was just how quiet and soft-spoken he was. The contrast between him and the movies he’s made couldn’t be wider, because there are some wild sequences and brutal gore in this movie, which also add to the fun. With a runtime of 94 minutes, Dean doesn’t leave an ounce of fat on this movie. The pacing is just fantastic, and the only disappointment I felt at the end was that the movie was over. While the script for Dark Match wasn’t radically different from movies with similar themes of cults and rituals, it was still very strong and didn’t get caught up in trying to be something more than it was. I probably sound like a broken record on this point, but I just want to stress how good a movie feels when it knows what it is. Sure there were some human moments here that added some depth to our characters, but they were part of the organic story of the movie. Dark Match never screeches to a halt so we can get some forced character moments that don’t fit the rest of the movie. I admire the confidence Dean demonstrates by sticking to what works for this particular story. 

There was some great stuff here on a technical level as well. The locations, sets, and lighting felt perfect, and I really loved the shots they had that showcased some vintage wrestling. Whether it was footage shown on TV programs, dreams, or on tapes, the style was great here and really made those moments stand out. 

Frankly, there was nothing really about this movie that I disliked. The movie was lean, looked great, had great effects, an amazing cast, and was a fun little cult mystery movie.

Verdict

What can I say? This is definitely a Dark Match you want to watch.

I go to the theatre a ton and this was one of the most fun and memorable experiences I have ever had at the movies. Everything about Dark Match worked for this wrestling-loving horror movie veteran, but even if you don’t love wrestling, there’s plenty here for you to really enjoy with a crowd of people at the theatre.  

On that note, definitely watch this one at a theatre if you can or at the very least with a group of friends. This score doesn’t just reflect the quality of the movie itself, but the quality of the viewing experience. This is the textbook definition of a crowd-pleaser, and you owe it to yourself to watch this with as many people as you can in the best viewing conditions possible. 

Is this movie in the same classification as other movies I’ve given this score to? No. But not every movie has to be some serious piece of “high art” to be considered good. It was a ton of fun, and it had so many fantastic moments and great characters that I won’t soon forget. Most of all though, it completely succeeded at what it was trying to do and what it wanted to be.