In terms of creators making the jump from YouTube to moviemaking, Markiplier’s Iron Lung is up there with the most interesting – even in the aspects it doesn’t quite get right.
Mark Fischbach, who shoulders primary financing, writing, directing, and lead acting duties for Iron Lung, is probably the film’s most prominent selling point – better known by his online alias Markiplier, Fischbach has made a name for himself as a YouTube creator, best known for his coverage of horror video games (including, of course, Iron Lung itself, created by David Szymanski). Now, we’ve seen a few YouTube creators make the jump from phone screen to big screen in the last few years, to varying levels of success – the Phillipou brothers have demolished their debut and sophomore features so far, earning mainstream critical and commercial success, while independent directors like Curry Barker have produced some interesting interpretations of well-worn genre stories. But then you’ve got the likes of Chris Stuckmann, who directed last year’s dismal Shelby Oaks – reliant on tropes and endorsement from big names in the genre rather than a genuinely bold approach. To be honest, when I first heard that Fischbach was making his debut feature, I had imagined it would lean more towards that end of the spectrum; with an audience as dedicated and enormous as his, he really didn’t need to push the boat (or, rather, hemorover) out with something as risky as Iron Lung, a single-location sci-fi cosmic horror that pretty much entirely relies on a performance from Fischbach himself.
But let me tell you – I’m really glad he did, because Iron Lung is an undeniably interesting addition to this year’s indie horror canon. The movie follows Simon (Fischbach) as a convict in a post-apocalyptic world who has been sealed into a makeshift submarine to investigate the depths of a blood-sea in the hopes of finding something that might help humanity rebuild after a catastrophic event known as the Quiet Rapture – not that the film goes out of its way to fill us in on much more than that, with lore drip-fed (if you’ll excuse the pun) to us throughout the movie in a manner that feels not unlike uncovering audio logs in a video game playthrough. We spend pretty much our entire runtime within the submarine with Simon, and that kind of focus on a single location calls for some excellent production design; for me, the way this movie looks, the grotty, grim, run-down feel of the hemorover, is one of the most compelling aspects about it, a constant sense of claustrophobia reinforced by the constant hard close-ups and cramped spaces. There’s a restraint with the horror that occasionally borders on incoherence, but, given the point of view of the character we’re meant to be seeing this from, it makes sense with the movie’s approach. At its best, it’s got a sniff of Event Horizon about it, the hellscape matched with the sci-fi and cosmic backdrop.
I was initially a bit skeptical about Fischbach’s choice to make himself the lead here, given his lack of feature film experience, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good his performance was, the little details he manages to draw out in the character despite the deliberately-scant script. Much like the dying stars still giving off light in the failing universe of Iron Lung, Simon feels like a doomed prospect from the start, counting down his time till the end, but Fischbach finds a way to make you care about it before it happens.
The movie’s biggest issue, and the one that has earned it the most critical ire, is its pacing and runtime; at just over two hours, it’s a hefty movie for one that’s so limited in location and script, if not in the grand cosmic horror of its scope. And look – I see what people are saying here when they talk about how boring this movie was to them, how there were long stretches of time where very little happened or the same thing happened over and over again. But Iron Lung is trying to put you in the shoes of a man dealing with the terror, frustrations, confusion, and even boredom of someone navigating this bizarre story and setting, and those long stretches of very little do serve to put you in his shoes. You’re as bored and annoyed as he is; I’m not saying it’s an entertaining aspect of the film, but I do think it’s an effective one at communicating the movie’s mood and feel. Could this film probably be cut by about half an hour? Probably, but the bloated runtime sort of worked for me, in that I really started to feel everything Simon was feeling by the dozenth time he slapped that sodding button, you know?
Iron Lung is, if nothing else, a bold and interesting movie for Fischbach to make his debut – while the script and runtime could use to fine-tuning, everything that you could ask for from a movie like this is here, from the production design to the atmosphere to the dense and intriguing lore. Even where it fails, it’s still oddly compelling and effective, at least for me, and it left me interested in what he’s got his eye on next – and that, for a debut, is about the best thing I could come away thinking. I know this has been a very mixed release for a lot of people, so I’d love to hear your take on it in the comments below, especially if you’re a pre-existing fan of Markiplier and his work!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via IMDB)
No But Listen 