Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Iron Lung.
After reviewing one video game adaptation – The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – just the other day, I’m back to check out another game-turned-into-a-film! But I think it’s fair to say that this one’s a little different.
I haven’t played Iron Lung, the game upon which this film is based. If you think my unfamiliarity with its source material makes my take somehow less valid… well, no hard feelings! But I wanted to be up front about that before we got started. I also want to add that I’m not a viewer of the video game YouTuber Markiplier, as Iron Lung is a film he wrote, directed, produced, edited and starred in. Note that I *didn’t* say that I dislike Markeplier, merely that his channel isn’t one I’m familiar with, as that kind of “gamer” content isn’t something I watch. Again, if you think my unfamiliarity with the film’s lead invalidates this review, that’s okay. These things are all subjective, at the end of the day.
I love to hear that someone is *passionate* about a story – even more so in the overly-commercialised film and entertainment landscape we inhabit in the 2020s. So I’m always willing to give passion projects like Iron Lung an opportunity to impress me, and perhaps a bit of a pass if things don’t quite measure up to other titles in the same space. The story behind the cinematic adaptation of Iron Lung is genuinely pleasing, even to an old cynic like me, and knowing that a video game could compel someone to use their money, fame, and connections to put together an entire film… that counts for something.
But let’s be honest: not all passion projects are any good, right? John Travolta’s Battlefield Earth, for instance, or last year’s Megalopolis, which I also reviewed; that film being the longstanding passion project of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. Being truly excited about something – and exercising full creative control over the subsequent project – does not always make for a compelling or enjoyable movie. And, to be blunt, it’s in that category that I would place Iron Lung: a well-intentioned film, clearly created by someone truly passionate about its story… but that just didn’t come together to make something I enjoyed watching.
Let’s start with the film’s central – and, for almost its entire runtime, *only* – on-screen performance. Being the only character on screen almost all of the time, having to react and emote and talk to oneself… these are acting challenges that would trip up even a seasoned Hollywood veteran. And, as I said a moment ago, I don’t doubt the passion behind the performance, nor that Mark Fischbach (a.k.a. Markiplier) truly gave the role everything he had. But there were moments in his performance which, to be blunt, were so bad that they veered into being unintentionally funny. There weren’t enough of those, sadly, to turn Iron Lung into a “so-bad-it’s-good” title that I could ironically enjoy. But the performance of the film’s lead, especially as the story progressed and Simon began to hallucinate and spiral… it was too over-the-top, too unbelievable, and just wasn’t good enough to carry the film.
When the staging is so minimalist, and the story is so muddled, a film like Iron Lung needs that sole acting role, that central performance, to step up and carry it over the line. And for me, it absolutely couldn’t do that. Perhaps Fischbach would’ve been better served by hiring a professional actor to take on the lead role instead of trying to do it himself – even if that might’ve taken some of the fun out of the production for him.
I called the story “muddled,” so let’s talk about that.
At key moments in the film, and especially from the halfway point onwards, I struggled to follow what was going on. The script didn’t make clear why Simon was doing some of the things he was doing or what his goals may have been. From the first moment we meet him, Simon’s main objective appears to be to survive the expedition and win his freedom. Great, got that. That explains why he’s mapping the cave, why he’s trying to find his way back, and why he seems, at points, to be pretty desperate and despondent.
But we don’t get enough of an explanation, either through monologue/dialogue, or even just from staging, camera work, and environmental storytelling, to explain some of the things that are going on. There’s deliberate ambiguity in some cases – like his hallucinations, the question of radiation exposure, and so on. But others – like the attack on the second submarine, and Simon sabotaging his own sub at the film’s climax – that really needed some more explanation. If Simon was going to go out in a blaze of glory; a heroic act of self-sacrifice to try to preserve the unseen and unexplained data… why was that not made clearer? I just didn’t get it… and it took looking up a plot summary after the credits had rolled for me to finally go “oh, so he deliberately rigged his own sub to explode.” Still not clear on the “why,” but at least I get what he was trying to do now.
I will credit Iron Lung for its practical effects and its visual style. The submarine’s X-ray camera, set back from the minimalist pilot’s station, was genuinely well done, and it made for a tense voyage of exploration when Simon couldn’t see, in real-time, anything that was in front of him. Having to constantly stop and check the camera upped the tension, and the large rectangular button, with its slightly ominous green light, was a huge part of that. The grainy black-and-white X-ray images that the camera produced also added to this effect, and it was a lot better doing it this way than, for example, trying to have a bunch of CGI shots of the outside of the submarine.
The submarine set – which is more or less directly copied from the video game, as far as I can tell – was minimalist, but it was still an atmospheric space. The rusted, corroded metal, all of which felt old and decrepit, the clunky physical buttons and switches, the gauges and valves, they all evoked old World War II submarine films, and the claustrophobia that classic titles of the genre could create. Sealing the only porthole on the sub, too, added to that sense of being trapped; that this submarine was really just an over-engineered tomb from the very first moment Simon was sealed inside.
Fake blood, especially in lower-budget titles, doesn’t always look great – but Iron Lung did a pretty good job with it. Especially later in the film, the blood became incredibly important, and the viscosity of the liquid actually looked about right, as did the colour. There were a couple of moments where I felt maybe it wasn’t *perfect*, but I’m content to let such things slide for the most part. What Iron Lung desperately needed to avoid was using something too thick – and looking like ketchup – or too thin and watery. I think, on balance, this exceptionally important aspect of the film landed about right.
I’m also pleased to see, in 2026, a film that doesn’t over-use CGI and digital animation. There’s something just… neat about old-school physical sets and props, and while there was CGI in the film, it didn’t swamp the production or feel overdone. And again, for a film on a shoestring budget compared to a lot of Hollywood titles, the CGI that was present actually looked pretty darn good.
Although Mark Fischbach’s performance was more miss than hit, the voice roles of some of the other members of the cast were a lot better. Captain Ava stuck the landing, really nailing the feel of being a post-apocalyptic captain, barely keeping her ship and crew together. I was still confused why she was so willing to risk her own life at the end to rescue the data… but that’s a script issue rather than a performance issue. And the other voices we heard – the male engineer during Simon’s second dive, or the crew of the doomed SM-8 (and their hallucinatory forms) – were likewise well acted and well performed.
Iron Lung is, in a way, a bit of a tough one to review. I didn’t really like the film as it was presented, and ultimately… you can be as excited about a subject as you like, but if the way you bring it to life isn’t up to scratch, that’s what I’m gonna remember. But at the same time, it’s the kind of project I want to see more of and I want to be supportive of – not because I support this particular YouTuber; I’m not a viewer of his channel or familiar with any of his other work – but because I think the world needs more independent films, and films that don’t easily fall into the typical Hollywood mould.
I will say that I’m glad to have been able to watch Iron Lung, and for the money I spent on it (about tree-fiddy on YouTube at time of writing (£3.50 in the UK)) I wasn’t exactly furious that I didn’t like it! It’s my hope that Mark Fischbach, and the team he put together, will continue to make films, and will continue to find projects that excite them and that they *want* to adapt for the big screen. And, like any actor, Fischbach has room to grow. A less challenging role, or even a lead role as part of a bigger cast, where he has other actors to bounce off of and work with, may well suit him better.
Perhaps Iron Lung was never gonna be “my thing.” I’m not a big horror aficionado, I’ve never played the game it’s based on, and I’m not a viewer of Markiplier’s YouTube show. But… the point of adapting a story is to bring it to new eyes, and I like to think I gave the film a fair shake. I wouldn’t have paid to watch it if I didn’t think it had potential, and I certainly didn’t sit down to view it wanting or hoping to have a bad time. It just… didn’t do it for me, I’m afraid.
Thanks for reading. There are a couple of other horror and horror-adjacent films that I’d like to check out later this year, such as The End of Oak Street and Disclosure Day, so I hope you’ll stay tuned for that. And I’ve also recently reviewed both 28 Years Later and its sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, so follow those links if you want to get my take on those titles.
Iron Lung is available to stream now (for a fee) on YouTube. Iron Lung is the copyright of Markiplier Studios and/or Iron Lung Productions. Two images used above courtesy of IGDB and IMDB. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Trekking with Dennis 