Now this is how to do horror on a Spirit Halloween store budget! WrestleMassacre is a backyard wrestling lover’s dream — it is a no holds barred, raw, bloody, sweaty kill-fest that is set to release on DVD on June 16th from Fuzzy Monkey Films and Wild Eye Releasing (Plaguers, Girls Just Wanna Have Blood). Using one of the most violent forms of wrestling in the world as inspiration, director/co-writer Brad Twigg creates a gory mess of a movie that has all of the best parts of an exploitation type film — nudity,  cheeky one-liners, violence, and mayhem. 

A lonely landscaper named Randy (Richie Acevedo) secretly harbors dreams of being with his unrequited love, Becky (Rosanna Nelson), as well as following in the giant footsteps left behind by his father, who was a former pro wrestler. Pushed around and demeaned by his employers daily, Randy lives out a meek existence. One day, he decides to follow his dreams and take a class run by one of his wrestling idols, but after being ridiculed and humiliated by the very man he idolizes, Randy goes home dejected. In his emotional state, Randy eventually becomes homicidal and begins a bloody rampage against everyone who wronged him — and anyone standing in his way.

What really made WrestleMassacre great was the acting. Much like the rest of the movie, the acting quality was obviously amateur, but instead of feeling amateurish like in a porno film, it was more in a raw, non-actor sort of way. Much of the cast seems to be spotted with professional wrestlers, such as the films’ star, Richie Acevedo, as well as co-stars Tony Atlas, Rene Dupree, Jim Fullington, Jessica Kresa, Jimmy Valiant, Nicholas Yoder II aka Shovelhead Chuck, the late Josip Peruzovic, and more! The more thuggish characters were the scene stealers every time though, leaning into the absurdity of their villainy and doling out the movie’s comedic relief moments. 

Other high points of WrestleMassacre were its beautifully greusome kills. This movie is about as low budget it gets, especially when it came to its special effects, but somehow I still found myself squealing and squirming in my seat as skin was pulled away from flesh, eyes were popped out from their sockets, and throats were torn out with bare hands. For far too long this movie plays out as melodrama; I understood that it was to develop the motivation behind the killer, but like many of it’s individual scenes, the first part of the movie drags on. Thankfully in the second half of the film, the anti-hero finally snaps and turns into an animalistic version of himself; the massacres kick-off and the movie takes a sharp turn into cult following territory as these kills are truly something to behold. Though WrestleMassacre requires a few minor leaps in logic at times, like the cold opener that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, the fact that Randy is Cuban American and is the only person in the movie with a southern accent, or, how this bad wrestler can suddenly turn into a killing machine, however, this movie makes up for it by weaving together interesting narrative threads, each one bringing yet more interesting characters into the fold. Overall, my takeaway is that it is a really well done, somewhat intentionally bad movie.

At this point, I am not expecting much from movies that are titled “(insert) Massacre”, they all seem to be of the same poor quality, except of course for the most infamous slasher massacre movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So having started in the right mindset, that is, one of low expectations, I was fully able to enjoy this movie for what it is — a fun celebration of gore, comedy, and brutality. I most enjoyed the movie’s often hilarious dialogue, several times I found myself laughing out loud. It is obvious that Mr. Twigg has a great love of exploitation films, and WrestleMassacre is certainly made for all of his fellow B-movie, shot-on-video, grindhouse, gore-hounds, sexploitation lovers, and of course, any wrestling fans. 

MOVIE RATING — 6 out of 10 ☠️