Iron Lung is a horror film directed and written by Mark Fischbach, known online as Markiplier, in his feature film debut. It is based on the similarly titled video game by David Szymanski.
A celestial event known as the Quiet Rapture caused all of the stars to lose their light, with humanity living on space stations and space ships to survive. A Convict (Markiplier) is offered the chance for freedom if he traverses a blood ocean on an unknown planet in a small submarine. As he communicates with Captain Eva (Caroline Rose Kaplan), he finds a skeleton. This extends his mission, but he soon realizes that he is not alone. As he uses an X-ray machine to take photos, he spots something ancient and evil in the depths of the blood ocean.
Made on a shoestring budget, this film stomped all of the competition at the box office, rising to the Top 10 on its first weekend and maintaining a solid showing in its second weekend. Of course, the paid shill movie critics jumped on it, either ignoring it, downplaying it, or giving it a bad review without watching it. No surprise there.
I did actually watch it, and I walked away pleasantly surprised. No, it is not perfect. It has several moments that lag just a bit too long, disrupting its pace. These moments happened several times, and if they had been eliminated, the movie would have felt much tighter. Also, you are just kind of thrust into the plot without a whole lot of context.
Outside of that, this is a pretty good movie. I have not played the video game, so I cannot compare it that way, but I definitely felt impacted by it. For one thing, you can tell Markiplier truly cared about the source material and took great care in developing the movie.
At times, I felt the isolation and claustrophobia that the Convict felt as each moment passed. You felt the desperation, the need to survive, and wondered if there was anything worth it for our protagonist to return. It was frightening, chilling, and a very original horror movie that comes out of respect for horror.
It is no wonder Hollywood fears this movie. Markiplier did what entertainment industry insiders could not. He did it with grit, reverence, determination, and a respect for the audience. His small budget turned into a huge gain. As the entertainment industry throws billions at failing projects, here was a small indie horror flick that crushed the box office.
Bottom line, Iron Lung is a frightening work. Markiplier executed the project well, and I applaud how he brought this all together.
PARENTAL CONCERNS: Pervasive gore, Strong foul language, Disturbing images
FAVORITE QUOTE: There is no backup system, is there?
Check out the trailer below:
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Tell me if there is a comic book, movie, anime, or novel you would like me to review.