Warning: This interview contains heavy spoilers for the Shudder original horror film Dark Match.
Sometimes it feels like the Venn diagram of people who love horror and pro wrestling is a circle. Both art forms are as good as they are bad, as fraught as they are profound, as subtle as they are camp. And they both rely on big swings, melodrama, and a suspension of disbelief to tell a story. With its own icons of horror likeThe Undertaker,the Boogeyman, and the many iterations ofthe late, greatBray Wyatt, pro wrestling should naturally lend itself to deeper, scarier narratives. But fromSee No EviltoPro Wrestlers vs Zombies, pro wrestling repeatedly fails to succeed on the cinematic horror front. As professional wrestling gets bigger and legitimizes itself as mainstream entertainment, in the vein of the MCU or even the NFL, you might think the films it inspires would get better. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case lately. Takethe new Shudder originalDark Match, a film that not only doesn’t grasp why horror or wrestling is good, but also commits a shared sin —treating women as an afterthought, even when trying to give them “Final Girl” status.
‘Dark Match’s Final Girl Is Underdeveloped So Men Can Yap
Dark Matchtells the story of an amateur wrestling troupe hired out to perform some matches at a large, creepy complex in the middle of nowhere. Eventually, it’s revealed they were hired by a Satanic cult and the matches are all to the death. The only human force to ground this over-the-top but ultimately emptily bloody concept ofDark MatchisAyisha Issa’s Miss Behave, one of the troupe’s “heel” wrestlers. Issa plays the character with strength and a quiet charisma thatDark Matchdoesn’t know how to handle. The film superficially mentions her unique challenges as a Black woman but never focuses on them. In a story with Satanic rituals and a brief appearance by an enormous goat creature,director Lowell Dean chooses to keep the realism of racism and misogyny in the industry. But only long enough for Miss Behave’s situationship, Joe Lean (Steven Ogg), to tell her to get over it. There’s no opportunity for the film’s protagonist to push back against this reality or experience its harm in a narratively significant way. While the film thinks her foe — in and out of kayfabe — is babyface Kate the Great (The Vampire Diaries’Sara Canning), the greater evil is the most interesting person in the movie being repeatedly sidelined so that old men can do monologues.
Despite Issa’s grounded performance,Dark Matchpaints its star as a rookie, a girlfriend, and not much else. Her shared chemistry with should-be main villain Spencer (Wynonna Earp’sMichael Eklund) gets a shamefully small amount of screen time. Instead,Chris Jericho’s Prophet gives repeated minutes-long speeches that step on the film’s pace. Over the course of the film, Prophet’s ominous promos don’t create a sense of unease and do nothing to further establish the thin Satanic ritual plot device. In the final confrontation between Miss Behave and Spencer, an inexplicably mute luchador (indie wrestlerMo Adan) gets the kill so that Miss Behave can move on to saving Joe Lean. This extends an already overly-long confrontation between Joe Lean and Prophet. With Prophet already significantly battered from his bout with Joe Lean — and Miss Behave spared by a man moments before — it’s a hollow, paint-by-numbers victory.
Why Is There So Much Crossover Between Wrestling and Horror Fandoms?
If you meet someone who is a big horror movie fan, chances are they love professional wrestling too.
Wrestling and Horror Confuse Visibility For Progress
Before her final escape, Miss Behave does one thing for herself. She grabs the championship title belt from the burning carnage of the wrestling venue, before supporting a heavily injured Joe Lean out of harm’s way. In the film’s final moment, a demonic goat man is summoned from the sacrificial offerings. Miss Behave takes off her jacket, picks up her signature bad-guy prop of a length of chain, and readies herself for battle. Does it look cool? It surely does … but then the end credits immediately roll. This reflects the meaningless “girl power” posturing that wrestling fans are still too often asked to accept as progress or empowerment.
While big wrestling promotions like WWE and AEW have expanded the women’s roster and upped visibility for their respective women’s divisions, there’s no analysis of what was holding women back in the first place.Dark Matchdoes the very same thing. What was an opportunity for a playful, gory examination of how pro wrestling fails women, particularly women of color, is wasted on booking that would at best serve as a Wrestlemania bathroom break. As women are restricted by less varied tropes and archetypes in pro wrestling, soDark Matchsidelines its final girl as a love interest and sidekick who only finds herself as a savior to the industry that limits her.
Dark Match
