Famous YouTuber Markiplier follows in the footsteps of indie horror pioneers.
- Jack Walters
- Dec 27, 2025
- 6 min read
The horror movie genre has a proud tradition of amateur and indie film makers using their passion and creativity, and gallons of fake blood, to bring fresh ideas and creativity into the genre, despite often working without the benefits or funding of larger studios. Born in backwoods Tennessee cabins and empowered through the hard work and ingenuity of a frequently small crew, these films often have the potential to redefine or rejuvenate a genre, but often their success spawns not only from fresh ideas, but from the passion and dedication of those involved. The most recent example of this is the movie-debut of Mark Fischbach, better known by his YouTube username Markiplier, Iron Lung, which has surprising similarities to its 1980s predecessor.
Iron Lung showcases the spirit and tradition of independent horror pioneers beyond just reportedly breaking the record for most fake blood used in a movie, a record previously held by 2013’s Evil Dead. Beyond the blood, however, Fischbach’s adaptation of the 2022 computer game of the same name harkens back to one of the originator of one most successful indie horror franchises both in its production and its spirit, and in doing so shows us that the legacy and potential of amateur (if the word is appropriate) horror films lives on even as technology and society advances.
Cinephiles and horror fanatics alike may remember the 80s film Evil Dead as the launching point of both director Sam Raimi’s career (and that of lead actor Bruce Campbell) and the Evil Dead Franchise and is particularly notable for its innovative cinematography and special effects which helped mitigate the challenges of a low budget. With pre-production beginning in 1979 and spearheaded by Raimi, Campbell, and Raimi’s college friend Scott Spiegal, Evil Dead found its funding chiefly from investors including familial associates.
Shooting involved three months of hard work and adaptation to overcome a particularly gruesome assortment of challenges at the primary shooting location, a cabin in Tennessee which, when the crew arrived, had several inches of cow manure filling its floors and needed extensive reconstruction, including a false cellar. Similar work was done on nearby bridge to create the iconic “bent bridge” scene, and several resourceful cinematography tricks were used, such as the series’ staple, the “shake cam.”
After the hurdles of shooting, Raimi and company faced another hurdle: distribution. Enter Irvin Shapiro, a veteran producer, who stepped in and arranged for Evil Dead to be shown at the 35th Cannes film festival in 1982, where, by chance, famed Horror author Stephen King was in attendance and later wrote a glowing review in Twilight Zone Magazine. With a spookily spectacular success under its belt, Evil Dead was picked up by New Line Cinema and appeared in theaters in April of 1983.
From such humble roots spawned a cornerstone of the horror movie genre, as Evil Dead not only went on to become a major horror franchise including comic books, video games, table-top roleplaying games, the 2013 remake and its spin-off sequels, and a three-season television show. It also, however, served as proof of concept for any would-be Alfred Hitchcock or Sam Raimi, proving that you didn’t require established resources to send audiences into shivers. With enough ingenuity and a healthy heaping of hard work, anyone could find their own restless spirits and capture them on the silver screen. What followed were a bevy of B horror goodness, some of which became cult classics while others grew to find their own success, while others flopped. With Iron Lung, the horror genre may be about to see a particularly successful example.
Amongst YouTubers, the name “Markiplier” represents not only uniquely quirky quality and wholesomeness, but also frequent adaptation and expansion. Beginning his career as an avid Let’s Player with a focus on horror games, Fischbach found popularity with such indie hits as the Outlast series, the Amnesia series, and perhaps most crucially, Five Nights at Freddy’s, which like the Evil Dead series has splattered multiple mediums and is returning to the silver screen with the 2025 film Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 which is currently in theaters at the time of writing.
Known as “the King of Five Night at Freddy’s,” Markiplier clearly has the heart of a horror fan, and he has the skills as well. In addition to appearing in skits, music videos, and musical numbers with fellow youtubers, such as Random Encounters’ Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Musical, Markiplier has never seemed content with sticking to familiar works. His writing and directorial work includes multiple series of his own work, most notable Who Killed Markiplier and its various spin-offs, many of which were interactive choose-your-own adventures, another example of Fischbach’s constant striving to improve and innovate.
With this in mind, Iron Lung may be a highlight of his career. The first time Markiplier and Iron Lung appeared in association was Markiplier’s let’s play of the indie game in 2022. Created and developed by David Szymanski, the two-hour-long game tells the story of a convict in a dying universe being sent into a sea of blood in search of resources and answers. Production of the film began in 2023, and while details were kept largely under wraps, a recent trailer and several videos on Fischbach’s channel have revealed a few of the blood sea’s dark secrets, and what has been revealed shows that Iron Lung follows Evil Dead’s footsteps.
Like Raimi and company, Fischbach is working without the backing of a large studio. From a production angle, he’s funded the film himself, and he’s written it himself, with Szymanski also credited as a writer. Fischbach is also directing the film, and this is his first full-length feature. Fischbach’s name appears throughout the film’s credits, and he gathered a talented cast and crew to aid him. While Fischbach is also taking on the central role, a recently released cast list has not only fellow YouTube contemporary Sean McLoughlin, better known as JackSepticeye, and such well known video game voice actors as Troy Baker and Elsie Lovelock. Also on the cast is a name more familiar to horror fans: Elle LaMont.
Like Evil Dead before it, Iron Lung encountered challenges during its filming in Austin, Texas which concluded in 2023. For starters, the nature of the film’s setting required some creativity, specifically the use of a “Nakmo,” a motion simulator used to recreate the submersible in the game. It also used a reported 80,000 gallons of fake blood, and Fischbach even required medical attention (on his birthday) after being submerged too deeply in fake blood. Once shooting concluded, Fischbach edited the film himself, a herculean task on its own.
In a bold move, Markiplier also handled distribution himself, and the success he has found in this has brought even more attention to the film and promises unprecedented success for the independent horror film. In the United States alone, 2000 theaters (at the time of writing) will be showing the film upon its January 30, 2026 release date, as well as some international theaters. Given that the initial number of theaters planned was roughly twenty times less than this on December 5th, Iron Lung is already pushing well past its depth limits.
This incredible outpouring caught many off guard, and even briefly caused the Iron Lung website to go down. It has since returned with a rather comedic addition to “mark” the theaters which will be showing the film. While many factors likely contributed to it, from Fischbach’s reputation and the advances in technology since the 80s, perhaps the largest reason Iron Lung is seeing such success is because it follows the trail of its predecessors.
Perhaps more so than any other genre, horror films have existed partially outside of the Hollywood mainstream and its practices. Since the 80s, it’s been shown that groups of hard-working creatives who refuse to let barriers, be they financial, technological, or societal, prevent them from telling the stories and creating the scares they want to. Many of the greatest horror genre hits across all mediums have come from unexpected and perhaps at times unlikely souls. These unexpected exorcists may be a group of college-age cinephiles from a small town in Michigan or a YouTuber branching out farther than they have ever gone before, or from the rest of the unknown depths we haven’t even begun to explore. After all, where there is a will-o-the-wisp, there’s a way to bring all new chills to audiences.
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