The film adaptation of the sci-fi horror video game, “Iron Lung,” was released on Friday. Written and directed by Mark Fischbach, widely known as Markiplier, the film stays true to the original game’s intent.
“Iron Lung” takes place in a world where every habitable planet has vanished from existence, with t people on space stations being the only survivors. A true cosmic horror story full of mystery, the main character, Simon, played by Fischbach, is a convict forced to explore an ocean of blood in a tiny makeshift submarine.
Keeping in tune with the video game, the film is set within the titular submarine. The only views we see of the blood ocean are through a low-quality black and white camera, invoking the same feeling of claustrophobia that the game does.
The film doesn’t try to add too much onto the original story. “Iron Lung” is a game where the mystery enhances the experience. The film added on little bits to the game’s lore, but it leaves plenty of room for speculation and analysis. The worldbuilding is left fuzzy in the game, and the same goes for the film.
One of the original game’s biggest strengths was its ambiguity. The player barely gets to learn anything about the world and the ocean they’re exploring. The dark lighting and unintelligible dialogue makes the viewer experience the same “blindness” that they would when playing through the game.
The movie’s flaws are somehow perfectly in line with the spirit of the original game. From a technical standpoint, the film leaves the viewer wishing for something different. The audio mixing is atrocious at parts, and the dialogue was unintelligible without subtitles. As for the lighting, there are multiple stretches where it’s impossible to see anything happening on screen. There are also several parts where detail is revealed through often unreadable text.
The biggest issue with the film is the pacing, mostly in the first half. Iron Lung is a short video game, only taking about an hour to play from start to finish. The film doubles that length, and it really didn’t need to. You could cut out 15 to 30 minutes from the first half, and it wouldn’t cause any issues.
A chunk of the pacing issues comes from how much time is spent just watching Simon turn different knobs and drive the ship. While boring to watch, it replicates the gameplay and helps the viewer understand how much Simon is suffering. He’s trapped in a rusty submarine, floating in an ocean of human blood, and not getting any real information about what’s outside. When he begs for the scientists who sent him down there to get him out, viewers truly feel his pain.
Fans of the original game will love this film for how faithfully it’s adapted, but general audiences might find themselves bored or confused. It’s evident that Markiplier and the crew were truly passionate about the source material while producing it. It’s a film that’s hard to watch at times, but that passion still shines through. For fans of the game, it’s worth a watch.
