by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Like a punk-rock version of the WWF, backyard wrestling is a scaled-down version of what we are used to seeing on TV. Pyrotechnics often consist of lighter fluid, costumes can be just a gaffer-taped glove festooned with thumbtacks and the makeshift wrestling rings are nothing more than just urine-stained mattresses taken from vacant lots. Despite shoestring budgets, these fanatics show true love and dedication to the sport by cutting themselves with razors, getting slammed down on concrete or getting smashed over the head with everything from picture frames and fluorescent light tubes to baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire.

With his documentary The Backyard, New York's Paul Hough raises the freak-show curtain on the whole backyard-wrestling thing and delves straight into this twisted theatre of pain. With thousands of backyard-wrestling federations popping up everywhere (including one here in Montreal) Hough has no shortage of subjects.

As one would expect, his subjects are largely misanthropic, monosyllabic, malnourished mouth-breathers, all with the same vacant, 100-yard stare. As demonic as they first appear, these knuckle-draggers quickly endear themselves to the audience as the ultimate underdogs.

The Backyard brims with colourful characters, like brothers Bo and Justin Gates. Already a regular in the emergency room, Bo is interviewed while in severe pain after his brother drops him on his head during a match. While picking pieces of broken glass out of his arm, Bo is asked if these injuries have made him reconsider his career choice. Bo stares straight into the camera and announces that nothing will slow him down in his quest for the WWF championship belt.

Sure, Hough's subjects are not the brightest bulbs on the marquee, and true, it is only too easy to laugh at grown men wrestling under monikers like Insane, Pretty Boy and Retarded Butcher. Hough realizes early on that the only way to make his 90-minute documentary work is by earning the audience's sympathy for his mongrel subjects. He does initially suck you in with his step-right-up carny barker spiel, but when he looks past the laughs and fleshes out these über-fans, he strikes gold.

Having said that, it's hardly some feelgood cast of characters "jumping off the top ropes into your hearts" kind of shit either. How about these wingnuts: Chaos, the heavy-metal high school drop out who prefers collecting scars and dislocated shoulders over wrestling figurines, or Scar, who has become infamous all over the Internet because of his resilience in the face of extreme pain.

Hough's central character is a 26-year-old father who still sleeps under wrestling-character bedsheets and wrestles under the moniker the Lizard - when not working at Pizza Hut. After years of wrestling scrawny teenagers, the Lizard's dedication is actually put to the test when he will have to pick on someone his own size. Without giving anything away, Hough's punchline here is priceless.

At Fantasia on Saturday, July 26, at 9:45pm and
Wednesday, July 30, at 7:30pm

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