Based on the 2022 indie game of the same name, the pipeline from game to movie was incredibly fast. Mark’s first video on Iron Lung was released in May 2022, with the announcement trailer for the game coming in April 2023. With the exception of 3 trailers, the film’s advertising was mostly word of mouth.
Initially when I heard the announcement of the movie I was skeptical of its quality, but Fischbach already had a past for making films and web series from his choose your own adventure style “With Markiplier” series. And then, after its release, the film landed very well, achieving the number 1 box office spot multiple times its opening weekend—beating both Sam Raimi’s Send Help and the propaganda documentary Melania.
Youtubers making movies has lately become very common, especially horror films such as Iron Lung. Last year film critic and youtuber Chris Stuckman released Shelby Oaks and in 2022 Danny and Michael Philippou, RakkaRakka, released Talk to Me. The difference between these features and Iron Lung, is that the latter is fully self funded and distributed. Shelby Oaks was distributed by Neon and Talk to Me by A24. Iron Lung’s reported $3 million budget was fully self funded and its distribution was a deal made directly with theaters.
The film tells the story of a far future humanity after an apocalypse on a galactic scale. Every planet and star suddenly disappeared in what was dubbed “The Quiet Rapture”. All that was left were the manned space stations, starships, and mysterious moons with oceans of blood. We follow a convict, played by Mark, sent on a submarine into one of these blood oceans.
Watching it in theaters, the first thing that stuck out was the lack of studio title cards that most movies have, it went from advertisements straight into a striking opening narration. Even with a mere $3 million budget, Iron Lung’s production is very well done. We only really see one set, the submarine, but it is used to its fullest extent. The strong cinematography and visual effects help the psychological aspects.
Iron Lung’s atmosphere is all within the blood. Mark stated that the film broke the record for most fake blood in a horror movie, using over 80,000 gallons. I spent the first half of the movie wondering how that’s possible, but it suddenly makes sense in the final act.
The film spends most of its time building up an atmosphere, which unfortunately can cause the pacing to occasionally drag, especially within the first half of the movie. Luckily, as we entered the back half, the film’s pace speeds up and it takes a much more psychological path.
For a first film Iron Lung is great but not flawless. The most impressive part to me is that Mark wrote, directed, starred in, and edited this move. So much work was done by him but there are clearly certain things he is better at. The direction of the film is on point, with its mood being apparent for the entire runtime.
What falls behind is the pacing and, occasionally, Mark’s acting. In general he does a good job but there are times when he gets a bit too over the top. But that would be less of a problem if a couple minutes of the middle sections were shortened. There is a lot of standing around and “moving” from location to location. The issue is that all of this happens through the controls of the submarine. The viewer has no real way to understand what progress is happening, unless you pay attention to the coordinates of the front of the submarine which are only shown a couple times in detail.
Overall, Iron Lung was a very good movie. With its low budget and being Mark’s first real project—the movie is a feat. While occasionally leaning too slow, and Mark’s acting far from Oscar-worthy, the best moments of the film far and away make it worth watching.
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