By Julian Menendez | Staff Writer
Iron Lung is a sci-fi horror film based on an indie game of the same name, directed, written, and starring Mark Fishbach. Known online as Markiplier, Fishbach built his career as a gaming YouTuber focused on personality-driven content.
Over the years, he has also self-directed several ‘choose your own adventure’ series, all starring himself. Iron Lung marks his debut as a feature-length film director, while still staying true to his roots.
The movie is immediately effective. From the first scene, you’re pulled straight in, quickly introduced to the film’s universe and central premise. It feels surprisingly polished, reminiscent of a much higher-budget production. Strong voice acting, unsettling imagery, and implication-driven storytelling set the tone early, but it’s the sound design that does much of the heavy lifting.
Every creak of the submarine, every distortion in the intercom, and every mechanical whirr of the camera feels deliberate. The submarine itself feels heavy, like it has real mass pressing in on you.
Nearly every aspect of the film felt like it was specifically engineered to provoke dread and anxiety. The music rises constantly, rarely offering release, and when it does, it’s somehow worse. Those moments of quiet feel dangerous, unnerving. The claustrophobic, grimy submarine, its permanently closed viewport, and a single external camera with immense shutter lag all add to a suffocating tension.
The film also withholds information almost entirely. We follow a lone prisoner piloting the submarine on a vague, dangerous mission, drip-fed only fragments about the world and the blood-filled ocean outside. Rather than clarifying the situation, small moments of exposition force the viewer to share in the protagonist’s confusion and uncertainty.
This is a kind of movie that keeps you constantly thinking and theorizing, constantly trying to piece together what’s going on. Over a two-hour-and-seven-minute runtime, that can become draining, especially since some scenes linger longer than necessary. While I personally found the sustained confusion effective, I can see how that approach might not work for everyone.
Aside from its length, the writing felt strong and purposeful. The plot never felt clichéd or predictable; I was consistently lost in the best way possible. The psychological elements were particularly effective, and the character work felt grounded.
The film convincingly portrays the mental deterioration of someone who willingly agrees to be welded inside a metal tube smaller than an F-150. Watching that steady psychological decline as he explores the dreadful unknown feels disturbingly believable, despite the world itself feeling implausible.
As a longtime fan of Markiplier, I walked into the theater excited but with carefully managed expectations. Being handed a pink mustache, a classic symbol of Markiplier’s YouTube career, only heightened that anticipation.
When the credits rolled, the first thing I said to my friends was, “I think that was a good movie.” Iron Lung is a successful debut that works well as a psychological thriller and leaves me genuinely excited to see what Fishbach does next.
7.5/10
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