“Iron Lung”: Into the Depths 

“Decades ago, every known star and habitable planet vanished, leaving only those who were on space stations or starships. This event became known as the Quiet Rapture. With supplies dwindling and infrastructure crumbling, survivors are searching for any trace of natural resources in a universe of barren moons, lit by the ghostlight of vanished stars. One such moon holds a strange anomaly: An ocean of blood. You are a convict, tasked with exploring this anomaly, in a makeshift submarine nicknamed the Iron Lung. It was not designed for this depth, so you will be welded inside and the forward window will be closed. There was no time for training. If successful, you earn your freedom.” This is the introduction to the game. Welcome to Iron Lung. 

Originally a horror game developed and published by David Szymanski in 2022, Iron Lung is now a self-funded, independent film directed by Mark Fischbach, more famously known as Markiplier. Markiplier is a popular content creator on YouTube known for his “Let’s Play” videos, often playing indie horror games. In addition to those videos, he does comedy and narrative projects such as his “With Markiplier” series, which is a group of interactive “choose your own adventure” videos. The most watched video in this series is “A Heist with Markiplier,” with 43 million views. 

This film was a passion project for Markiplier. It makes sense that he would be the primary influence with the production of the film, being the director, a writer, a producer, the protagonist, and the main editor. He also put a lot of money into this project, which “reportedly did not cost more than $3 million,” according to a Forbes article. 

The film starts similarly to the game, with a monologue similar to the introduction. Though unlike the game, the film adds a secondary setting, outside of the blood ocean, with the team of people in charge of this expedition, which adds more interest into what would have been a film set in only one place. This film takes the more psychological approach to horror, giving audiences anticipation of what is out there, but never really showing it. The audience only has a “skeleton” to go off of. “Just with the camera work alone, the film immerses you alongside Simon [the protagonist] with close shots or dark lighting, making you feel the claustrophobia from the close, dark corners that make the submarine into a coffin,” said John Hiett from Cedars. 

While the film leans into psychological horror, it doesn’t miss out on the gore. According to an Instagram post, Markiplier said, “‘Iron Lung’ triumphed over ‘Evil Dead’ (2013) for holding the world record for the most amount of fake blood used in a film. ‘Evil Dead’ (2013) used 50,000 – 70,000 gallons of fake blood, but ‘Iron Lung’ used over an astonishing 80,000 gallons of fake blood to finish the film.”

Throughout the film, Simon starts to have visual and auditory hallucinations. These hallucinations sometimes help the expedition go along, but the hallucinations also begin a downward spiral for Simon. Some of these hallucinations seem to have religious undertones. A good example of this is towards the end of the film when Simon starts hearing a voice from outside of the submarine talking about a “magnificent light” and “salvation,”  trying to get Simon to join them.

While the film has its highlights, a common critique of the film is that it drags on longer than needed. I watched it with my mom, and she called it boring. One of my coworkers at the Alamo said, “You can beat the game faster than the film.” While I agree it was too long, I  believe I stayed interested throughout the film because I was already a fan of Markiplier to begin with.

At the beginning of the film, all I could see was Markiplier playing the game like he had three years ago. But as the story went on, I started to really separate Markiplier from the character he was playing. I went into the film without actually watching the gameplay or knowing the lore beforehand, so there were times in the film where I was confused and it was hard to follow. While I originally was not a fan of horror, this film kept me interested and drawn in for someone who gets scared easily. I overall enjoyed the film and cannot wait to see what other projects Markiplier has planned. In a video titled “I didn’t think this was possible,” Markiplier thanks the viewers and talks about the film. In the description, he writes, “I don’t think I could ever properly put into words how grateful I am for what you’ve done for me. But I’ll keep trying.”