By David Slifer

YouTubers have certainly been making their mark in the film industry recently. This trend has continued with the new movie Iron Lung – directed, written by and starring Mark Fischbach, best known to the public as Markiplier. He wanted to make this film after playing the game it was based on with the same name, which was made by David Szymanski. Iron Lung released on January 30 and was produced with an estimated budget of $3,000,000. As of February 19, the film has made $44,033,336.

The film takes place after an extremely destructive event known as The Quiet Rapture. This event caused the planets that could hold life to disappear. An organization called the Consolidation is on a mission to find resources on other planets and moons so that humanity can continue to live, and they are now about to try and find resources in what they call the Blood Ocean. We follow a prisoner named Simon (Markiplier) who has made a deal with the organization. He would go in the Iron Lung to explore and bring back resources and information he finds in the ocean, but things take a turn when the isolation and ocean begin to take a mental toll on Simon.

Something very unique that does not happen a lot in other films was that the setting for about 99 percent of the film took place within the Iron Lung. This aspect of the film was very well translated. Usually, the lack of change in scenery causes the audience to lose interest, but this problem is quickly solved with Markiplier’s phenomenal performance and the suspense that grows as the runtime continues.

Markiplier has made a big name for himself on YouTube and the gaming community. He started his channel back in 2012 and has made a growing community ever since. Even if you did not grow up watching his videos, you have at least heard his name before. The numbers breaking at the box office and the turnouts at theaters being massive is not surprising.

Markiplier does a great job with every aspect that he was involved in. His balance of the three jobs he did was important as the stress of each job could have bled into his performance. Simon is a character that when we first see him, we are given information on who he is and why he is where he is. From that point on we can then understand more and dig deeper into that information. This was well done from a writing standpoint as the audience can already get the basic backstory and done well on a performing side as Markiplier portrays the emotions and growth well as we understand his character more. As the film goes on the isolation begins to weigh on Simon. Markiplier does great at showing the sanity slowly slip away to whereby the end he does not know who or what to believe. His performance was great and one of the biggest highlights of the film.

“I basically grew up watching Markiplier,” said student Avery White. “I always really liked his videos, especially when he started doing his own little movies like A Heist with Markiplier or In Space with Markiplier. When he announced his Iron Lung Project, I knew I wanted to see it. I knew it was going to be different than any other horror movie out there because of the source material.” When asked if White would recommend this movie to others, they said, “Yes, yes – a million times yes. I want everyone in the world to see this wonderful movie.”

Budget of most films nowadays on average are around $65,000,000, with many even reaching over $100,000,000. It is interesting to see many people making low budget films these days. Many films that we see today from bigger companies are just reboots or a reimagining of previous material with CGI plastered on the screen. Not to say that reimaginings are always bad, but it is refreshing to see something that is more grounded in the practical sense of cinema. Markiplier did something new that worked for a lot of people and hopefully, he continues this path and makes more movies.