‘Iron Lung’ Review — Indie Cosmic Horror That Lives Up To The Mantra “Oh, Yes… There Will Be Blood”
2026 is already shaping up to be a wild card of a year. We’re barely six weeks in, and somehow three films have muscled their way into my line of sight, demanding attention. The first two were pleasant curveballs, the kind that make you think the universe is on a roll.
So when a scrappy, DIY indie horror flick – based on a cult‑favorite game and carried almost entirely by one guy trapped in a shoebox-sized room for two hours – crossed my path, I figured, why not? Lightning strikes in threes, right?
And as if that weren’t enough, the guy handled half the grunt work behind the curtain himself. He’s an unproven force – actor, writer, director, would‑be genre auteur – all rolled into one ambitious wildcard.
I’m, of course, talking about Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach and his debut feature, Iron Lung – a film that’s crashed into the cinematic landscape like a blood‑soaked, claustrophobic Lovecraftian thief in the night.
It came out swinging, too, pulling in impressive numbers right out of the gate… until Sam Raimi’s Send Help swooped in and stole the spotlight halfway through opening weekend. The box‑office puppetmasters quickly shifted their attention to the next shiny thing, but plenty of us haven’t moved on so easily.
Markiplier, now rapidly becoming a darling among the scrappy, verdant filmmakers who clawed their own way in, is soaking up attention as everyone waits to see what he does next. He insists he’s staying in his current lane to avoid getting swallowed by studio bureaucracy – a bold stance, honestly – but fortune has a habit of rewarding that kind of stubborn conviction.
But before getting surgical into the guts and bone of Iron Lung, it’ll help to sketch out how brutally simple the premise actually is. Markiplier directs himself in a rather straightforward scenario of a convict named Simon who is sealed in a rust-bucket sub on a distant moon, or maybe it’s a planet, with no detectable signs of life.
His mission? To boldly go where no one in their right mind would go: the depths of an ocean of blood that may hold the key to saving what’s left of humanity. Left with no other option, Simon has nothing except a camera and a map to guide him, and only the voices that flit in and out of a damaged speaker to keep him company.
Well, aside from his growing panic and uncertainty… or so he and everyone above him on the surface initially believe. As soon as Simon starts taking pictures, he catches glimpses of land masses and bones that might be evidence of a strange, malevolent creature lurking beneath the waves. And it may smell fear!
Mostly out of necessity, the film relies on the tried-and-true tactic of showing just enough to make the audience more scared and intrigued by what they don’t see. We never learn the true nature of the monster. It may read thoughts and emotions like Cthulhu or we could be watching the projecting guilty mind of a lead character being driven mad (and thus rendered unreliable) by trauma and isolation.
Everything we see could easily be happening in his head, and credit goes to Markiplier for nurturing that ambiguity with surprising finesse – not so much through his writing, direction, or editing tricks, but through the sheer commitment to his performance. He carries most of the movie with earnestness, and conveys a tragic pathos in Simon you don’t typically get from a first timer to feature films that get a theatrical release.
The places he goes are heavy and he comes across as natural living in this cryptic nightmarish space, with a greater displaying of range than I was expecting. Not being familiar with his YouTube content, I had no frame of reference to tell ahead of time that he had chops like this in him.
He and everything around him is bleakly serious, but also polished. Like Primitive War and Shelby Oaks before it, Iron Lung shows off a level of competency that belies its budget (a reported $3 million). As the former instances, and other auteur-driven indies have taught us; time, grit, determination, and imagination can yield stunning results – and the receipts to match.
It’s the kind of underdog story that the industry pretends to care about, which is an endorsement of a sort. However, the film is still Lovecraftian horror made with a built-in fanbase in mind. It leans unapologetically into the cold and claustrophobic strangeness of its surroundings, and is uninterested in holding hands through the experience.
There won’t be much comfort when it might drag or when it reaches its down-beat conclusion. While it isn’t quite Cronenbergian or Ari Aster-caliber, Iron Lung sure isn’t late-stage Blumhouse either.
NEXT: ‘Shelby Oaks’ Review – Found Footage Horror Gets Stuckmannized
Iron Lung
PROS
- Markiplier pulls off a memorable performance
- Another case where the film looks professional while costing so little
- There's even good use of CGI in spots
CONS
- Simon has a back story in a doomsday cult that feels extraneous
- The pools and pools of blood will run a lot of people off
- Lovecraftian horror is niche
