I didn’t expect to see a man who has screamed at horror video games for over ten years now make an incredibly fascinating horror movie that truly took the audience for a ride, but Iron Lung blew me away. In only one weekend, Markiplier changed the film industry with his debut film. Officially released on January 30 of this year, it hit number one in America, Australia, and New Zealand during its opening weekend. I can say for a fact that this movie blew away fans of Markiplier, a YouTuber with over 38 million subscribers who has been known to bite off more than he can chew, but this film was definitely not one of those projects. This was something more, something with so much passion and love put into it that it shows on the big screen. From the gallons of blood to the amazing soundtrack put together by Andrew Hulshult, who worked on other works from games like Dusk and Tokyo Underground.
Iron Lung, based on the video game of the same name, perfectly adapted the game to film. In the game and movie, they follow the plot of our protagonist diving into the blood ocean of a distant moon to find something that explains what has happened to their Galaxy, as all the planets and stars have disappeared, leaving a small civilization to dwindle on a space station. The descent into the blood ocean is made even more terrifying when our protagonist, Simon, in the movie, is welded into a rickety submarine that groans under the blood ocean’s pressure, making every journey down more difficult than the last. Markiplier plays the film’s protagonist, and, as in his previous role in The Edge of Sleep, his character has great emotional depth. When he is scared, you feel it in his voice and see it in his eyes. There is a scene toward the beginning of the film where Markiplier’s character, Simon, is communicating over the intercom of his submarine, and you can distinctly hear the terror and concern in his voice about going down in this blood ocean. This scene was so impressive on Mark’s end, just seeing how expressive his acting can be. He is a very believable actor, and for just getting into the larger production scene, he is doing amazing.
The film did a great job of making you feel isolated, as if you were in that submarine with Simon, trying to find what is in this blood ocean. Without giving too much away about the film, since it is still in theaters and has no official streaming plan, the plot is so bizarre and has some unexpected twists that made my jaw drop. One warning I want to give about the film is the vast amount of blood. Toward the end of the movie, the amount of blood you see increases astronomically. My mom and I, who watched it, both got extremely nauseated during these scenes, and we both tend to be fine around blood, but this movie pushed us to our limits.
The music, sound design, CGI, and practical effects for this movie were done at a professional level, yet were all funded by the man himself, Markiplier. The lighting and props for the movie were extremely detailed and well-thought-out. The behind-the-scenes footage for the film shows how they built a huge, rotating set that Markiplier rode in to simulate a real submarine. As well, they had some detailed CGI of creatures toward the end of the film to really show off the threat the audience should be scared of.
This movie was entirely self-funded and distributed to theaters. The plan for this movie was never to make it as big as it did. As Markiplier stated in recent live streams during the film’s opening weekend, it was initially set for a limited release in only a few select theaters. Still, he wanted as many of his fans as possible to see his work. Many other YouTubers, such as Gamesnapreal and Brandon Morse, and I believe that “Hollywood” is mad at Mark for making an indie film that went on to become as big as it did, grossing nearly 4 times the amount put into the movie. Seeing a small movie like this that was self-distributed and made by only a handful of people might concern the Hollywood scene that these tiny films can get as big as one that was fully produced. With Mark’s large YouTube fan base, though, it was bound to happen.
If I could watch this movie a hundred times, I would. There are so many little details, so many things left to the viewer’s interpretation, and a lot of scary moments that make this a must-watch for horror and sci-fi fans who want to support an indie artist changing the film scene. Markiplier has already discussed plans for a new film; he always wants to take the skills he’s developed and make something ten times better. I can’t wait to see what else comes from such a creative mind.
