Iron Lung Review – YouTuber Markiplier crashes with sci-fi horror on the big screen | film

WWilliam Goldman’s old entertainment industry adage still applies: No one knows anything. The independently financed horror film, Iron Lung, was smuggled into theaters without the usual promotional fanfare, where it was eagerly awaited by a large following of Hawaiian writer-director-star Mark Fischbach, better known as YouTube gaming legend Markiplier. Many of us have long felt that culture is making a decisive break with the analog in favor of the Internet (perhaps irrevocably) and Fischbach’s film makes this paradigm shift not only visible, but profound; It doesn’t feel any different than spending 12 hours on Twitch with all the curtains closed.

Although Markiplier approaches the horror genre from a theoretically new angle — by adapting Dave Szymanski’s eponymous space submarine simulator — it rests on a rusty narrative idea of ​​an astronaut deviated beyond his depth; This is the moon in dim light. Surrounded by ominous tremors and growing doubts about the state of humanity, this disturbing and dirty craft piloted by Simon, the shaggy-haired convict of Fischbach, is indistinguishable from your average teenager’s bedroom. Our hero staggers around this intergalactic death trap completing vaguely defined tasks – crash this, fix that, download something or other – like a harassed father ticking off his Sunday to-do list. In this, Simon proves more competent than Fishbach’s off-screen character, who is either confused or oblivious to the film’s underlying issues.

Hopes of Iron Lung being a new dark star were quickly drowned by the depressive tone, leaden pacing and almost complete absence of spectacle; This is essentially a radio play script that has to be told persistently, because this stripped-down production doesn’t have much to show. (The accomplishment, which was first and foremost entrepreneurial, is almost admirably skewed: Markiplier steers people toward content that makes Solaris look like Con Air.) Even if you have a major case of main character syndrome to center yourself for two-plus hours while weeding out voice-over co-stars, Fischbach remains steady in front of the camera; No doubt more money and bigger collections will come his way. But it can’t handle the heavy dramatic load required to turn the plot of a short film into a watchable film. At least MrBeast’s stunts got him out of the house.