Iron Lung review

IRON LUNG: 

MARKIPLIER’S AMBITIOUS ALBEIT FLAWED DIRECTORIAL DEBUT! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

MARKIPILIER STUDIOS

Something frightening lurks below in Iron Lung

 

            In the tradition of the Angry Video Game Nerd, RackaRacka, and Chris Stuckmann, Mark Fischbach AKA Markiplier joins the YouTubers-turned-filmmakers club with his feature film directorial debut, Iron Lung, a sci-fi horror film based on the 2022 video game of the same name. Before I get started, I should make something clear, I’ve never played the Iron Lung game before, I didn’t even know it was based on a game until I was already sitting in the movie theater about to watch it. 

            Because of that, I won’t be able to determine whether or not it’s a faithful adaptation and will instead be judging it as a film. I’ve mostly been indifferent to Markiplier on YouTube, I’ve seen a handful of his videos before, but he has nowhere near the amount of rewatch value to me as people like James Rolfe, Doug Walker, or even SomeCallMeJohnny and Caddicarus. 

            Still, I was curious to see what his first venture into film would be like considering how other YouTubers have made the jump to big screen movies in the past. Like Chris Stuckmann’s directorial debut, Shelby Oaks from last year I can see this not being everyone’s cup of tea and I certainly have some issues with it, but Markiplier’s Iron Lung movie is pretty damn impressive. 

            The film follows Simon (Played by Fischbach), a convict who is forced to pilot a submarine through a desolate moon’s ocean of blood, after an event known as the Quiet Rapture caused most of humanity and all the stars to disappear without warning. However, as he ventures deeper into this blood ocean, Simon discovers something far more terrifying. 

            The film also stars Troy Baker (Final Fantasy XIII, Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, The Last of Us) as David, Ella LaMont (Machete Kills, Alita: Battle Angel, Mercy Black) as The Whisper, David Pettitt (Gundam franchise, Death Note, Inuyasha) as The Father, Seán McLoughlin AKA jacksepticeye (Free Guy, Dispatch) as Jack, and video game journalist and content creator Alanah Pearce as A Familiar Voice. 

            Overall, Iron Lung will probably be best enjoyed by fans of the source material, but even as a casual moviegoer who didn’t absolutely love this movie, I admired the craftsmanship and work Markiplier and the crew put into it. This is an amazing production especially for an indie film in terms of the production design and effects and sure, this isn’t a grand cinematic epic, but it looks and sounds great on the big screen. 

            It is one of those movies where the majority of it takes place in one location (In this film’s case, a submarine in a blood ocean), but it is a damn good-looking location whether it’s the lighting and ingenuity of the submarine interior set, the movie’s never visually dull despite tons of dark shots during the film. The movie isn’t a full-on gore-fest, but the times where it does use gore effects feel very meaty and juicy and much of it looked like it was filmed in front of the camera which is always nice to see. 

            I was initially conflicted on Markiplier’s performance in the beginning because it did feel very hammy and stilted at first, but once shit hit the fan in this movie, his acting turned on. He legitimately plays terrified quite well in this and gives not a great performance, but a good one to carry the film. 

            The scares are pretty effective, many of which are psychological and atmospheric consisting of weird imagery, grotesque creatures/body horror, and creepy things going on in the protagonist’s head. I can’t say it’s a movie that will make me lose sleep at night, but I was engaged when scary shit started going down with hardly any jump-scares. 

            The film itself is pretty solid, but there are some crucial things that keep it from being great to me, the first being the complete lack of bringing newcomers up to speed. Before I watched the film, a friend recommended to me Markiplier’s video on the Iron Lung game to understand the lore better and yeah, if you’re an Iron Lung newbie, watch his video or any other gaming YouTuber’s video on it because I did not understand anything about the plot outside of the main character is in a submarine in a blood ocean and a rapture happened, the attempt at translating the game to film is admirable, but it does seem more engaging as a video game according to how the film plays out. 

            I also felt the movie was too long and tedious in several scenes, the runtime itself is only 2 hours and 7 minutes which granted isn’t that long, but the sluggish pacing and lack of context for those outside of the fanbase make it kind of a bore at times until the crazy shit starts happening. No, it has nothing to do with the fact it’s a movie that takes in place in one location throughout most of its duration, one of my favorite sci-fi films of all time is the 2009 movie, Moonwhich was mostly set in an astronaut base on the moon with Sam Rockwell being the only character throughout the majority of it, but it was consistently more interesting from a visual and storytelling perspective and didn’t drone on for long periods of time. 

            Yeah, I can’t say the Iron Lung movie worked completely for me, but I’m sure fans of the game and Markiplier in general will rejoice when they see it unfold on the big screen. It’s an impressive feat for an indie film and smaller projects like this deserve all the attention they can get in theaters in this mega blockbuster-filled and streaming world, dive on in and see if this is your kind of “BLOOOOD OCEAN!”. I ended the review with a Dethklok reference!