“Iron Lung” 2026: Review

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

An extremely ambitious movie especially for a first time filmmaker. The choice to tell a lovecraftian tale when you did not have to in an attempt to tell a more complex story is very admirable. I felt the production was excellent, and the set and practical effects were very impressive.

I guess I should probably give a little bit of a disclaimer before giving this review, and honestly it may surprise you what type of disclaimer I am about to give.

I have never watched a Markiplier video in my life.

Not because I didn’t think I would like him, but because my style of “lets players” on YouTube were always duos or groups. I have been a huge Game Grumps fan for the better part of a decade, and during my Rainbow Six Siege kick in college, I was watching the groups of creators who would play together such as TuxBird, Yumi and Cob. Solo gamers were not really my cup of tea.

TLDR, I went into this movie not knowing to the extent in which Markiplier was involved, when I heard he had been apart of its production, I kind of thought that he had a peripheral role in it’s production, that maybe he had funded parts of it and gotten credit as something like an executive producer. In fact, I was so oblivious to his role in this film that when the movie began and it showed Mark descending in the submarine, I thought “maybe this is a cameo, and his character is going to meet some early demise to get to the main story line”, but no, I proceeded to watch two hours of a very ambitious first film of one of the most iconic YouTube creators ever. My first impression of Markiplier was through this film, and I didn’t go to this movie because he was the driving force behind its production, I chose to see this movie, because I really like the video game, Iron Lung, that this movie is based off of.

So when I say I didn’t know to what extent Markiplier was involved, I mean I didn’t know at all. I was encouraged to play the game when my favorite YouTube creator, Ryan Hollinger, posted a review about it on his channel. I found it enticing and took it upon myself to play the game, and though it was a simple game I did find it interesting and creepy, especially as someone with a not-so-moderate case of claustrophobia. I played it through one time, and forgot about it.

That was until January 30th, when I saw a movie adaptation was headed to theatres. As someone who frequents my local theatre with quite some regularity, I am always keeping an eye out for new releases, and when I saw this movie was going to be showing, I was very intrigued. This movie about a fairly obscure and simple game was being released without any fanfare or advertising. My curiosity got the best of me, and without watching the trailer, I bought a ticket and headed to my local theatre, where I was welcomed to a sold out showing of this movie. At the time I didn’t realize how this movie had garnered such a big audience, that was until the movie began and Markiplier’s very familiar name, face and voice was on screen, and then it all clicked into place for me and I realized that this movie was 100% a Markiplier film. And as I watched the film, my watch experience was mixed with a sense of awe and admiration that this independently produced film was as impressive as it was. When I left the theatre I had been entertained, spooked, and inspired by the film. I loved Iron Lung, more than just as a film but for what it represents to me as a creative person.

Iron Lung, 2026, Directed by Mark Fischbach (AKA Markiplier)

Go Big (Fish) or Go Home

One thing I both admired and enjoyed about the film was its attempt to create a cosmic horror film. Funnily enough as much as I liked this aspect I also feel like it may have been where I feel a lot of the audience may have been lost because it is such an enormous undertaking to effectively execute a cosmic horror film. Cosmic horror is a genre that requires a certain level of both ambiguity as well as explanation that I believe is very difficult to execute. Whenever I watch a very good cosmic horror I feel like the story is tight enough to keep you engaged but just mysterious enough to keep you wondering and theorizing. And while I feel like at times Iron Lung was trying really hard to find this balance, and I do believe that it was an extremely good attempt, because while I do feel that this film bit off a bit more than it could chew, it didnt impact my watch experience in a negative way. I felt that the aspects that I found to be a bit obtuse were merely contributing to the mystery of the film. Personally, I love films like this. Donnie Darko and Annihilation are two of my favorite films ever, and both of them have an enormous amount of ambiguity associated with them, so for me at least, having a film attempt to be more complicated and not landing every single concept is better than doing something simpler for the sake of answering every question.

And I will say, I also am a little bit more forgiving in this review partly because I was so impressed that Mark chose to be as ambitious as he was. I was impressed that he chose to run with the story he did when the game gave him so little to work with outside of a very general plot line. I feel like someone like Mark has such a strong pop cultural following (almost 40 million YouTube subscribers) that he could have made a far simpler film where the horror just comes from the setting and circumstances of the submarine while uncovering some conspiracy about “the man”. Yet he chose to go above and beyond to develop a more ambitious plot, and he did a pretty solid job. I don’t know, I respect that Mark didn’t mail it in on this one. I really felt his enthusiasm and excitement for this concept was infectious, and in the last third of the film I was so gripped by the story.

“Iron Lung” broke the record for the most fake blood used on a movie set, using around 80,000 gallons of it, beating the previous record set by “Evil Dead” (2013) which had used an estimated 50-70,000 gallons of blood.

Fellow Creatives, take Notes from Iron Lung and Mr. Fishbach

I think one thing I felt super inspired by was how much work Mark put in to make this movie happen, and as a creative person who really struggles with starting projects, I was so inspired by all of the different “hats” Mark learned to wear in order to produce this film, and I just was so moved by that.

Don’t get me wrong, having 3 million dollars to invest in a film does probably help to a degree to getting started on a project, but Mark was very open about the struggles of this film and the amount of work he shouldered was no small feat. And in the end, he had an idea, and he did the damn thing

I felt that when I left the theatre for Iron Lung, I had been moved by the enormous effort and creative lift exhibited by Mark, and as I walked out into the cool evening air I felt this overwhelming sense of hope that I could make my dreams come true. I know that sounds corny, but it is true! The amount of vulnerability it took to put so much time, money and effort into a project, and there was no guarantee that it would succeed. He took the plunge on such an enormous scale, and I dont know, if he can do that, why can’t I start a blog? Why cant I post videos? Why cant I try? Even if I fail, the world will move on. Honestly, it seems silly but the reason I decided I would give this little hobby another chance was because I was so inspired by the massive risk Mark took, and also his massive success (His movie made 50 million USD in the box office on a 3 million dollar budget). I have no doubt he grappled with the very real chance that his creative vision could have flopped, yet he kept on working.

So, I guess I am just saying, there is always risk, but without risk, there is no reward. If you have an idea, you have to actually make it, and you could fail, but you also could succeed. You have to do the damn thing. Thanks Mark. I went into this theatre expecting to see a big fish (which I did) and left feeling a reinvigorated on a my creative pursuits.

Thank you Mark. I am really glad you succeeded.