My Full Review of Iron Lung (Low Spoilers)

Okay here's the deal

There is a marginal number of people for whom this is not just a movie, but the culmination of 3 years of hype, after budgetary constraints, hospital visits, and what felt like a solid year of post production. Fans of Mark Fischbach's work have been eagerly following every update and stage of production rabidly awaiting the final film's release.

I am, for better or worse, among these people. Mark's work both on YouTube and otherwise has been a stable part of my life for the better part of a decade, and he himself is someone I admire more than is probably reasonable.

Despite this, I'm obligated to share my feelings and review this film honestly, which is what I'm going to do. Any criticism should not be misconstrued as an attack of any kind, Mark has a pretty stable and understanding fan base so I'm not that worried about backlash.

Beginning with things I completely enjoyed.

Primarily, Iron Lung is a terrific survival horror movie. The protagonist, Simon, works toward a series of progressively complex and difficult goals, eventually even having to map his way out of an under-sea cavern without a clear visual of the outside. The mechanics of how the vehicle worked were very well communicated, and the feeling of dread and an immediate threat was ever-present. As in the game, the lack of any perfect visual of outside, aided by little implications like the blinking proximity light and the excellent sound design, lead to a genuinely uncomfortable experience, especially if you don't like the sight of blood. I personally also thought the film's duration was well spent. A major hurdle in the development of closed-box movies like this is finding out how to fill the runtime without boring the audience. Movies like 1408 or Buried acccomplish this through flashbacks, but Iron Lung manages to solve this issue in a way that also played into the theme. In a way that invokes other excellent pieces of survival horror, (It reminded me of Still Wakes the Deep a lot actually) Simon, rather than having any sort of grand plan on how to escape and get home, is provided a series of tasks. one after the other. They're not easy, and in fact become grosser and less successful as he goes. Collect the sample, hack the computer, enter the crawlspace, keep the camera working. Simon never gives up. In a story about fighting for survival to the very last breath, even when utterly hopeless, the events of the story really go a long way in portraying humanity's angry, aggressive will to survive. The general quality and aesthetic design of the film impressed me a lot. The soundtrack, costumes, makeup, set design, sound design, and all immediately obvious aspects of the movie were professionally crafted and made with clear passion.

In particular I'd like to heap praise onto the sequence/running bit where Simon attempts to keep the camera on for its light by taping over the button. It's a simple yet instantly recognizable visual that can easily be read as a direct metaphor for the film's main these of perseverance in the face of hopelessness. Well done

Now for the things I personally thought fell short.

Mark has a tendency to let the audience's mind wander in terms of story, in what I assume to be a fear of over-explaining anything, he tends to say the loud part quiet, leading to a significant amount of fan deliberation over what actually happened, to the point where he often has to explain the events himself in a video after the fact.

While I personally found the events of the story mostly straightforward, excusing some hiccups near the end, everything outside of the immediate setting is at best well exposited and at worst incredibly unclear.

Some things, like the discovery that sunk the SM8, or what exactly Eden is, can be easily inferred, or don't matter in crazy detail for the story. What's the information Simon downloads and puts on the Blackbox? Doesn't need to be explained. It can save the universe. Perfect McGuffin. That's all that matters.

However, Simon's personal history, the meaning/origin/significance of the nickname "Butcher", the specific details of what went down at Filament Station, what the fuck the blood actually is and why it does that, and a couple other little things are all, I would argue, important to the emotional stakes of the story, and it'd be best if your audience could understand them clearly.

While this kind of thing is acceptable, appropriate even for a YouTube ARG involving multiple choose-your-own-adventure style series', it's less advisable when you're attempting to reach as wide an audience as possible through cinema. I'm a firm believer in Mark's insistence that YouTube and online content creation are not inherently lesser forms of art or storytelling, but there are different parameters for the mediums. In an ongoing internet series where you partially make it up as you go along, having empty spaces in the story is an opportunity. In a major motion picture with no plans for a sequel or future worldbuilding, it's more likely to alienate and confuse the audience.

A version of this obscurity is also unfortunately present in the lighting and cinematography, which is excellent 90% of the time. Insert shots, however, especially toward the bloody, bloody end of the film, can be a bit disorienting. I asked out loud "what exactly am I looking at right now" on multiple occasions. In any action sequence of a film, you want your audience to be able to follow along with the action to keep them on their toes and invested.

Despite these issues, which others may very likely disagree with or even counter, I ultimately thought the movie was insanely well made, especially for a first-time filmmaker. (Trust me I'm well aware he's directed before, but he himself will tell you all about the complications of first time directing a major motion picture.)

Like I said, in spite of my best efforts to remain otherwise, I'm biased toward this film by association with Mark and his existing work and fanbase. It didn't really matter to me that some of the plot was unclear or some of the shots were too dark, because I was watching a hero of mine on the big-screen for the first time. I watched somebody I admire, over the course of years, learn and grow in order to put out a passion project, in order to make something in the medium I'm passionate about as a filmmaker.

I hope to God Iron Lung does well because, whether he wants it or not, Mark has made a statement in film, that artful, entertaining, and lucrative stuff can come from independent production and passion, and if studios get it in their heads that giving opportunities and money to passionate young freaks like me, all the better for it.