Iron Lung (2026)
Directorial debut of YouTuber Mark "iplier" Fischbach, based on an indie horror game by the Szymanski brothers of "Dusk" and "Gloomwood" fame. Now, I've always been rather unfamiliar with Fischbach's work on YouTube, I had, perhaps unfairly, always pegged him as another PewDiePie, i.e. an insufferable shouty manchild. I wasn't aware he had directorial ambitions, although as of right now there definitely seems to be a certain pipeline forming from YouTubers to film makers, which I'm not opposed to. New blood, no pun intended, has to come from somewhere. Unfortunately, however, I did not, really, enjoy Iron Lung.
So, Iron Lung is set in a rather vaguely outlined post-apocalyptic science fiction setting that, frankly, to me just felt like what it sounds like to me whenever someone tries to explain some aspect of Warhammer 40K's worldbuilding to me. The last remnants of humanity, confined to a small number of space stations, discover an ocean of blood on a remote moon. A convict with a dark past, played by Fischbach himself, is put on a submarine to scour that ocean and promised, if not very convincingly, his freedom in return.
So, what Iron Lung is, is effectively a one man chamber play, set almost exclusively in one single interior, that of the aforementioned submarine, and starring one guy, plus the voices of a few other people who are only very briefly seen on screen.
Make no mistake, I respect what Fischbach is doing here. While I'm not sure I would describe Iron Lung as very artistic, making a slow paced, repetetive one man play, set in a hermetically sealed room, and trying to carry it all by yourself is, if nothing else, ambitious. And to give credit where it's due, for an untrained actor, Fischbach is doing a fine job. Playing a troubled man, struggling against the influence of the, inevitable, eldritch horror at the bottom of a sea of blood, he's suitably expressive and, for the most part, sells his emotions well enough. I also think he did a fine job directing the movie, the claustrophobia is very palpable, the camera work if very dynamic, there is a genuine interest in the textures and details of its oppressive setting. And once it ramps up to its climax and starts to get all Event Horizon-y, the effect work is... well, it's adequate for what it is.
But as an actual movie, it all just felt way too messy and loose for something with sich a limited scope. It's trying to be a character study (good) and it's also a lovecraftian horror story (A natural combination, sure), but then it's also a dystopian science-fiction story with a lot of really silly worldbuilding and imagery and... I dunno, I found it both messy and not terribly engaging. See, I think there is a kernel of a pretty good idea here. A story about a man alone on a submarine going insane, perhaps under the influence of some eldritch horror. That's a very effective premise for a short horror story. Matter of fact, what Iron Lung feels like, is like it would have made a really good 60 minute episode of some Star Trek style tv show with a somewhat pre-established setting and characters. But as a standalone movie, this is just... well, pardon my language, it's just unwieldy nonsense.
It's a checklist of cosmic horror and body horror tropes that aren't really all that original or interesting, padded out with repetetive, laborious and, yes, very video gamey busywork that never really creates the tension it's going for, because it's just not as exciting watching a guy stuck in a submarine performing a dull, mind numbing job while losing his mind that it is being that guy. Especially when the actual cosmic horror aspect just isn't that interesting. I dunno, way too much of that stuff has just become cliche at this point.
Honestly, what Iron Lung feels like, more than anything, is some highlight reel for Fischbach's skills as an actor. Which, again, I'm not taking away from him, he's doing pretty well, all things considered, he definitely has a future as an actor. Perhaps even as a director, if he picks the right material to work with. But that's also all that Iron Lung is, really, a proof of concept, a glorified job application to be film director and a leading man. The actual substance of it is rather flimsy, I felt. Too overwritten to work as a raw character study, too vague to work as a science-fiction horror, too bloated to work as a short fan film. Maybe Mark Fischbach has a good or even a great movie in him, but this isn't it.
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