00:00Markiplier takes a deep dive into terror as he writes, directs and stars in an adaptation
00:04of the video game Iron Lung.
00:06In the future, humanity is on the brink of extinction after the quiet rapture has made
00:11planets and space stations vanish.
00:13Markiplier plays a convict who has to pilot a submarine, the titular Iron Lung, to explore
00:18the blood-red ocean of a desolate moon for samples in exchange for his freedom.
00:23But when he becomes stranded, he soon becomes aware that something alive is down there with
00:28him.
00:29At least far from the first YouTuber to make the leak to film, what Markiplier has done
00:32here is a tremendous accomplishment.
00:34This is completely self-financed and has had a largely grass-roots release, encouraging
00:39his fans to demand cinemas to play it, resulting in a surprisingly wide global release that
00:44nearly topped the US box office.
00:47Regardless of what you think about the film itself, that feels like a seismic shift.
00:51And the film makes the most out of its limitations, playing out almost exclusively from the inside
00:56of the sub and is a deliberately claustrophobic experience thanks to some extreme close-ups.
01:02Much of the horror is mentally and existential, given our main character is trapped inside
01:06a rickety sub that's constantly dripping with barely an idea of what he is supposed
01:10to be doing or what resources he has, and his only glimpses outside come from flashes of
01:15the radioactive camera, building suspense out of what we cannot see until it becomes an extremely
01:20overused gimmick.
01:21Given he is the only person on screen for 90% of the running time aside from one long
01:26exposition scene early on, Markiplier is a surprisingly engaging screen presence, playing
01:31a man who desperately wants to live despite a world of despair and nihilism, even if he
01:36isn't given all that much to do other than grunt a lot and scream profanity at the top
01:41of his lungs.
01:42Although you can marvel at how the long hair he has makes him look uncannily like Adam Driver.
01:47Unfortunately the biggest problem with Iron Lung is that it's extremely overlong and the
01:51tension is undermined by long stretches of tedium that need a much tighter edit.
01:56A single location one man show cries out to be an hour and a half, not dragged out to 124
02:02minutes.
02:03It does have its moments, especially in the blood bath and body horror finale and the clear
02:07inspirations taken from Alien, Moon and Event Horizon.
02:11But too often it gets bogged down in long, repetitive dialogue scenes clunkily explaining
02:16largely irrelevant lore, much of it with a radio that is so often garbled and broken that
02:21it's unintelligible and makes things hard to follow at points.
02:24It does feel extremely faithful to the game, but at times so much so that it feels like you're
02:29watching a live action let's play rather than something that you're emotionally invested in.
02:33But despite its flaws, it's an undeniable calling card for Markiplier that impresses and
02:38shows a lot of potential for something much bigger.
02:41Fact 3 that was the best part of the 88.
02:43Those will explain some reference to the quality.
02:44And it proves the personal happening, long everytime the trouve chapter 8 try to be
02:45to do but there.
02:46Especially when there's no points, the author's full synonyРИике where we are
02:51going to change the depth, how the type of San Jose is created.
02:54No part of our Google Playlatil past this season and around the world's
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