IRON LUNG (2026)
a review by Evan Landon
I remember the first Markiplier Let's Play YouTube video of the horror game Layers Of Fear a few years ago that was entertaining enough for me to subscribe to his channel. That was before he had 38 million subscribers and rocked short pink hair. From there, he has become one of the richest streamers on the internet; so much so, that he was able to independently fund this passion project, direct, edit, and star in it. That is nowhere near the most aspiring aspect of this feature, as it is based off of a new, somewhat obscure computer game.
Yes. You read that correctly. Iron Lung is an independently-released film based off of an independently-released computer game, & I am almost absolutely certain that it is one of Method Man's aliases. Also, that metal tube that breathes for polio patients. The film and game, subsequently, are pretty slow moving as far as the pacing goes, which I can see turning some people off to it. Personally, I don't mind a slow burn, every once in a while, as long as it pays off. In this case, it does.
The plot of Iron Lung is the same as the game, to which it follows very closely: After an event called “The Quiet Rapture”, where all of the stars and most of the human population suddenly vanished, a prisoner named Simon is tasked with piloting a small submarine called the “Iron Lung” on a blood-covered moon to explore. Turns out that they have sent the same submarine down before with a different pilot to get some samples off of a skeleton at the bottom of the ocean that could have the key to save humanity. Simon must then gain the sample, get it back to the surface for the larger ship to acquire, all the while fixing the Iron Lung from filling up with blood and ultimately killing him while he hallucinates some very dark images hindering his process.
Now whether you think the plot I just explained to you is something you would like to see or not, the story behind how Markiplier (born Mark Fischbach) put this whole passion project together is much more interesting. After playing the game on his channel for all of his followers, he had an idea to make it into a movie, so he teamed up with the creator of the game, David Szymanksi, and another streamer to create the movie from the bottom up. They even made a moving submarine capsule of the “Iron Lung” on hydraulics to simulate the actions on the inside of the ship, as everything outside of the ship is mostly crude stills on a grainy camera that adds to the feeling of paranoid isolation.
With all $3 million coming from Markiplier himself and not going through a major studio with a larger budget and more fingers in the pie, he definitely bet on himself to make his vision come to life. Some are able to pull it off and some are not, so it is very satisfying to see this one work because that right there is a game changer for the filmmaking industry. It is a breath of fresh air to see this sort of thing happen because most of what we see about the future of movie making is most studio producers afraid of AI more than an indie darling proving they do not need a major budget to pull off something that works for both the artist and the audience. What started off as a limited theatrical release soon grew larger across the country as the grassroots demand grew, proving that little to no advertising could be as effective as a widely-marketed major release. Shit, it wasn't even released during the season for a movie like this and pulled in $49 million, proving that the cinema going audience is still alive, as well. Brilliant!
The truth is that if you like a psychological horror movie with some prosthetic body horror and a clear cut case of claustrophobia, you should not even worry that this is based off of a video game that some dude played over the internet. That's how I feel about it, anyways.
3.5 Out Of 5