Okay, so I got to go see Mark Fischbach’s “Iron Lung,” and I say “got to” because you have to take out a loan and slice off a piece of your soul to afford a movie ticket nowadays, but I managed to go see it.
Now, going into this movie, I had no idea what I was watching, therefore, my expectations were pretty low. Honestly, I was expecting a Tommy Wiseau “The Room” type of thing, but I was definitely wrong.
First of all, “Iron Lung” does not suck. Let’s get that out of the way. In fact, it’s not bad at all. It’s not the greatest thing I’ve ever seen, but I felt like I didn’t waste my time watching it.
So, I’ll go over the negatives first.
The plot was out there. I really didn’t quite understand a lot of the finer details of the plot, and watching a YouTube video of Mark playing the actual game revealed next to nothing. The static over the intercoms made it difficult to hear what was being said in some scenes, but considering Mark’s character, Simon, also could barely hear it, that was probably intentional.
The first half the movie was a great set up while the second half broke down into madness, which I’ll get to in a bit.
So, I’d say the most negative thing about the movie is that the plot is difficult to follow.
Now for the positives.
The acting is solid. I honestly did not know Mark could act, but his acting is pretty good, as are the supporting characters and their deliveries. Furthermore, the sets—and there aren’t that many—are fantastic. I absolutely loved the interior of the Iron Lung. There is virtually no CGI in this movie (that I could tell), but everything looks incredible. I really dig those big digital green numbers and rusty metal, like something straight out of “Fallout.”
Furthermore, the plot of the actual game is nearly nonexistent. Mark just straight up wrote the plot and dialogue for this movie, which is really impressive.
Now, the plot has a heavy “Event Horizon” vibe, and it captures the oppressive, suffocating dread it was going for. Adding a cosmic horror element to the plot outside of the game was—I think anyway—a nice touch. Hence, why the second half of this movie breaks down into total chaos.
The concept of the game is wild (an ocean of blood?), and that carries right over into the movie, and that makes the whole thing unique. I think Mark captured the essence of the game’s fear mechanic, which is the slow inevitable realization that you are trapped in a coffin of which you had no choice but to enter.
I’m giving this film a solid 68° Scahrenheit (20° Hellcius). That’s a 6.8 out of 10 for all of you normies out there.
So I Watched Markiplier’s “Iron Lung” (2026)… Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
Note: The image for this post was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI and modified courtesy of Canva.com.
