INT. CORISSA’S APARTMENT — NIGHT
Los Angeles. It’s 10:14pm, Wednesday, February 11th. I just got back home from The Grove after experiencing Iron Lung for the second time. You don’t just watch this film; you experience it.
It unfolds.
It lingers.
It courses through your head like blood vessels; or like a vessel coursing through blood.
And it’s a cinematic work of art (80,000 gallons of fake blood included).
Listen, I’m gonna be honest here. Before now, Markiplier was one of those creators I just kinda knew about, but hadn’t dedicated time to sit down and watch. Life, y’know? D’struggle. That said, I had always enjoyed what random clips and content I happened across. My impression was always positive and the general, communal agreement I always heard from his viewers has been, “we’ve made the right one famous.”
So, when Iron Lung released, I wanted to support the indie-everything about it. I did no prior perusing. I just went in with my fringe exposure to a long established community.
But when I saw he had put his name last in the opening cast credits, I knew he really is that guy. Ah, so that’s why his supporters say things like, “we care because he cared first.” That is what builds an indomitable community.
Of course, I’m aware of the stigma surrounding a YouTuber making a film and self-everything for it. If that’s your thoughts and you’re reading this, then I just want to say: Don’t let an old mindset keep you from experiencing true artistry in storytelling.
All the years that Mark Fischbach has been creating on YouTube was hands-on experience in crafting the art of storytelling. Iron Lung is no different. We’re just not used to someone who gave himself his own career (via the community he built) taking his story to “the big screen” (and profoundly succeeding).
Now, Iron Lung has become a cultural phenomenon and a piece of cinematic history (at least in my opinion); something I’m glad to have experienced a second time. It’s a slow-burn, claustrophobic introduction to a character that builds up to a flash-bang of masterfully told cosmic horror. But more than that, it is so very human and heartbreaking and profoundly evocative.
I’m alone a lot. And perhaps my own isolation is what welded me into the SM-13 with Simon, the film’s main protagonist. I guess I wasn’t prepared for the sheer force of nature that was Mark’s performance. It’s not that I doubted his acting skills. I just only knew of his work in sketch comedy. His performance as Simon, aka The Convict, was captivating… (there’s a pun in there somewhere, and I definitely intend it).
I can’t stress this enough: I hope to see more of this side of Mark, aka Markiplier.
At risk of rambling, I need to express my appreciation for the layers of symbolism in Iron Lung, and the lack of ‘in your face’ exposition. The film trusts us as the audience to care enough about The Convict to look for the meaning and the motives. I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much. Finally, a film that takes you on a journey and not just spoon-feeds you a narrative.
And the visual symbolism… Streaks of blood like prison bars on the sub’s porthole window. A crack in that window like a tree, taunting memories of Eden and a time before the Quiet Rapture. A matching crack in the pendant containing the symbol of a belief, of a hope encased in resin… And (without spoilers) how that is a foreshadowing of what was to come for Simon. Even the trauma and terror that he experiences before finally making his own decision – his own choice – was a piece of narrative brilliance.
I could say so much more, but I’m avoiding anything too spoilery. The main point I want to make is that this story is masterfully crafted and beautifully… executed in a way that only someone with complete independence and a passion for David Szymanski’s video game that it’s based on could do. Markiplier was free to tell a story without stakeholders to appease and I believe the experience that is Iron Lung is stronger for it.
Honestly, I want to see more. I want a prequel. I want to see more of Caroline Kaplan as Ava, and Troy Baker as David, and Seán McLoughlin as Jack (good name for him, eh?). I want more theatrically released films from Mark Fischbach and his talented cast and crew. For now, I guess I have some catching up to do on YouTube.
And hey, I haven’t written about a film in a long time. Iron Lung inspired me to bring that back. I used to do this all the time for my own YouTube show. Then life happened. Repeatedly. But now I’m thinking, hell, at least I’m not welded into an “iron casket” at the bottom of an ocean of blood. Maybe now is as good a time as any to bring something back from the dark.
Maybe now’s as good a time as any to get back to living.
“I just want to live. Is that so wrong?”
