(Image courtesy of ironlung.com. “‘Iron Lung’ follows the harrowing story of a journey at the bottom of a blood sea.”)
Aaron Preziosi
Connector Editor
Mark Fischbach, better known as popular YouTube personality “Markiplier”, made his directorial debut last month with “Iron Lung”, a horror film based on the video game of the same name created by David Symanski. While film adaptations of video games have historically been hit-or-miss, either focusing too hard on fixing the source material, straying too far from it, or recreating it beat-for-beat, “Iron Lung” is written and executed in such a way that allows it to pay homage to its source material, while also standing on its own. It is another thing entirely for a self-made YouTuber to star in such a film, let alone write, direct, and finance it. Markiplier does all four of these things with finesse and passion.
The premise of the film is as outlandish and dark as it is compelling. Taking place in the distant future, it is immediately established that the world is broken and ruthless due to an apocalyptic event known as the “Quiet Rapture” causing most of, if not all stars and planets to vanish, taking most of humanity with it. Fortunately, the phenomenon did not affect space stations or moons, leaving what remained of humanity to scour whatever they could to rebuild and look for resources. The film is about one such effort, following a convict named Simon, played by Markiplier, descending into a blood ocean in a ramshackle submarine to explore and look for anything of interest.
However, Markiplier’s performance may come off as monotonous; Simon tends to yell at his problems and hit things when he is frustrated or to get what he wants; it is bolstered by how visually compelling “Iron Lung” is. Every single aspect of the film has been tailored to be as tense and rife with detail as possible. Through its two-hour runtime, the audience watches as Simon grapples with his fate, bickering and shouting at his superiors, musing to himself at the bottom of the blood sea, fumbling with controls and finding things that were never meant to be found; and every second of it is dripping with atmospheric dread. The camera captures angles that feel like out-of-body experiences, with extreme close-ups that show off so much texture in the environment. Every bit of rust and condensation is visible, as is the ribbing on Simon’s clothes, the humidity and heat in the air and the sweat on his brow: All are right in the audience’s face and convey a sense of weight to everything that happens within the submarine.
Despite its compelling visual identity, however, it must be said that “Iron Lung” does drag slightly. While fun to watch and incredibly atmospheric, it is still a slow watch. It is still two hours of Markiplier losing his mind in a submarine at the bottom of a blood ocean. There are only so many times the audience can watch Simon yell at his boss before it gets stale, which the latter half of the film does rectify slightly with a lot more movement in the plot; after all, why would a horror story about exploring an ocean of blood in a submarine not have anything freaky or scary at the bottom of that ocean? Viewers should watch and see for themselves. Grade: B+
