Iron Lung will make you hold your breath (spoiler-free review)

Iron Lung is a sci-fi/horror film, based on a video game that has the same name, written, directed, edited and produced by Mark Fischbach, better known as Youtube personality Markiplier.

This film takes place in a far future where humans achieved colonization of space, other planets and moons. A catastrophic event referred to as the Quiet Rapture seemingly simultaneously wipes out all sentient life besides a small sect of people that are governed under the Consolidation of Iron or COI.  Our film follows a single passenger on a rickety submarine in this post-apocalyptic world. As a prisoner, he is repaying his crimes through compulsory service to the overall collective of remaining humans. These convicts are placed in small subs to explore the oceans of human blood that have been discovered on uninhabitable moons in hopes to find a solution to this near extinction event. The subs are dispatched, single-manned, and used to gather environmental data and radiation based liquid photography to explore the depths of the blood oceans. 

To start, I must admit I have never played the game nor do I watch any Markiplier, I am aware of him but I am judging this solely on the quality of the film I watched without any external buzz. I absolutely love the grassroots campaign this film took to get to this point. Self-financed, self- written and largely self promoted, this was a perfect example of someone like Markiplier leaning into their success to finance a passion film. He also kept the video game creator, David Szymanski, deeply involved with the screenplay and on set, maintaining the soul and integrity of the source material. This was a massive creative swing by Markiplier, not only was he funding and directing but he was also writing and starring. He even expanded his release at a grassroots level, encouraging fans to contact their local theaters and request the film, growing it from a 60 theater premiere to a 4,100 theater premiere. 

Credit to Piece of Magic Entertainment

This film looked excellent. Most of it took place inside a small sub and the feel of it was perfect and consistent. The few swings they made on the external world really worked. The blood ocean looked horrifying, the creatures looked fantastic, and the effects looked tactile and visceral. Some of the tricks here are truly unbelievable when you consider the sub 3 million dollar budget. It was dynamically shot striking the balance between close intimate tight shots and wide panning full submarine sweeps, and the tension just leaked out at a steady pace.

They did a great job of raising the tension of the film in very simple ways: occasional drops of blood dripping in, creepy pictures of the outside world, mounting condensation that trickled down the walls, and the creaking and groaning of the sub itself. They also focused on the lighting, intentionally baking the lighting into a plot device and using it to signal things to the viewer. It all felt very natural and consistent as the temperature was turned up and the film hit its fever pitch.

The writing does have its faults but I really appreciate the way the viewer is ensconced in this world. There is no spoon-feeding at all, the film really wants you to put things together in real time and it never over explains anything. It simply places you in the world and lets you figure it out yourself. This really helped compound the anxiety inducement as a viewer, as you are trying to learn and not to panic simultaneously. 

When you take a swing like this, there are naturally going to be snags. I love the confidence of Markiplier casting himself to solo lead a two-hour film but there are certainly places where his acting inexperience shines through on the screen. Emotional beats feel a little wooden throughout and the physical presence on the screen still seems to be developing. Two hours is a long time with one character in one location, and the film is really bogged down by its generous run time at several points. There is a particular stretch in the second act where a lot of the tension is drained from repetition. At times, it really felt like a taxing fever dream with the disorientation and intentional confusion and I don’t really think those moments helped advance the story much. I think cutting about 25 minutes from this runtime would have done wonders for the flow.

While it visually looked incredible, I found the audio and sound-mixing to be a bit jumbled many times. It can be hard to discern the dialogue with the ambient noise overtaking it. The budget limitations definitely came into play with how much of the external world was shown. I do think they found a nice balance but I craved seeing more of the ocean, and the outside world itself. 

At the end of the day, this was a massive success for not only Markiplier but for cinema in general. It shows the power of grassroots movements, of doing it yourself, and of faithful and passionate adaptations. I really respect what Markiplier and the team accomplished here and while it was not an incredibly polished masterpiece, it was an excellent debut that I hope they are deeply proud of. I look forward to seeing Markiplier’s next foray into film and hope he continues down this route he is trailblazing.

You can see Iron Lung in theaters around the country now. Show up to support the power of independent film!