I’m starting my review by saying that I am a huge fan of Markiplier. As someone who loves to support indie projects (such as supporting Southeast Asian indie developers with Indie Jam), seeing the announcement of the movie project got me really excited. Thankfully, my excitement met my expectations.
Without going into spoiler territory, Iron Lung is based on David Szymanski’s 2022 game Iron Lung, an indie horror game where you pilot a tiny submarine through an ocean of blood on an alien moon.
The movie expands the universe of the game quite significantly with the introduction of new characters, new plotlines, and a new ending that adds a twist to the original ending of the game. The setup of the main character, especially regarding why he is in this weird predicament, creates a shadow of intrigue for both the character himself, and also what is actually happening in this world.
Markiplier acting isn’t new. Any fans of his would know his previous work, such as In Space with Markiplier and A Heist with Markiplier (it seems a little vain to add your own name into your movie titles), but what makes his acting different in Iron Lung is the level of commitment he put into it.
His screams of anger and soft-spoken confusion could be felt through the movie screen. It made me forget for a moment that he is primarily a gaming YouTuber. While the supporting cast doesn’t make many physical appearances within the film, the writing of the banter and arguments between them felt fresh and genuine. I mean, if I were locked into a submarine, I too would be screaming at the disembodied voices coming through the speakers to let me out.
As for my issues with the movie, there are certain action scenes that felt like they were shot somewhat poorly. A mix of poor lighting and overly shaky camera movements made it difficult to see what was happening at that moment. This led to some confusion about what was happening, especially since the two issues above happened during several intense moments in the movie.
Audio balancing, on the other hand, was occasionally muddled, making it difficult to hear the dialogue. These happened during the same intense moments of the movie I mentioned, making it even harder to understand during those moments. The sound effects and the background music are great; it’s just the balancing between dialogue and the other audio sources that was slightly off, sadly.
To sum it up, the best way I would describe the movie is “the AA of video games” for movies. The look and feel is definitely not something cheap like an amateur film, and it’s close to what you would expect from a Hollywood-level movie, but just shy of the little touches that would pass it off as a more professional product. It feels somewhere in between – and I don’t mean it in a bad way. It is genuinely a good watch if you are a fan of the thriller genre, even if you are not a fan of the YouTuber behind this project.
