Iron Lung Is A Pretty Fun Modern B-Movie. Does Its Box Office Success Mean Anything For the Future of Cinema?
by Will Hurst, Contributor
Illustration by Rishi Nelson, Contributor
On paper, Markiplier’s Iron Lung is a bunch of stupid B-movie bullshit. With its odd, inconsistent pacing, cheesy screenplay, and eventual devolution into a ridiculous cacophony of loud noises and spooky voices, it’s hard not to see the film as part of a tradition of enjoyable, trope-ridden bad movies. Don’t get me wrong; this isn’t to say that it’s an uninspired work, as anyone who has watched a reasonable amount of old movies will tell you that the most interesting films are just as often poorly-dubbed Italian zombie flicks as they are somber Swedish dramas. While the film is clearly not “good,” the creativity shines through all of its clearly visible flaws; one can easily see the various cinematic stunts being attempted, even if they are only occasionally executed successfully.
While it might seem odd to describe a video game adaptation as creative (Iron Lung is based on an independent game of the same name), there are many aspects of the film that are reflective of a filmmaker who seeks to do more than replicate the popular cinematic styles. There are quite a few memorable moments that suggest at least some inspiration: there are unique camera shots, the focus on audio design through mechanical sounds and radio communication, and the legitimately impressive special effects—but above all else, there’s the boldness to adapt a game with a relatively minimal plot into a two-hour long movie centered around a singular protagonist.
I can already hear the complaints already; if this movie has so many flaws, then why do I take the pain to emphasize its strengths? Does the multimillionaire Markiplier really need me to boost his career? My praise is out of a respect for two things: his total sincerity and belief in the worth of his own project, and his unapologetic ambition. Many modern horror films attempt to co-opt “trash” or “grindhouse” aesthetics in an ironic way in order to make their lack of creativity seem like a positive quality. If your horror movie is bad and doesn’t even try to be unique, then you can simply present the film as stupid nostalgic entertainment, without putting in the creative effort that is needed to make any film, whether good or bad, entertaining. Oftentimes, these films aren’t even fun to watch, as their creators frequently use B-movie aesthetics as a crutch for their own dull and derivative filmmaking “styles”. In contrast, Markiplier skipped any pretense of pastiche and actually made a fun, creative B-movie without insulting the audience’s intelligence by winking at them constantly about how bad the film is. When watching a self-conscious imitation of B-movies, one can feel the shallowness—all that matters is that you are in on the joke. When one watches a film that does not achieve what it sets out to accomplish and comes across as strange, but nonetheless attempts to do something different, we are instead given the impression that the movie is attempting to explore ideas that are too big to be constrained by low budgets and lack of expertise. What makes many of the classic B-movies from the likes of Roger Corman entertaining is their willingness to experiment and pull all kinds of tricks out of their hats, even if the results are far from gallery pieces. We enjoy B-movies because they are novel and strange to us; Iron Lung is channeling those exact same qualities, and thus feels like a genuine part of that B-movie tradition.
The ambition of the film is apparent from the beginning: The POV of the camera almost never leaves the tiny submarine that the protagonist inhabits, and there is virtually only one on-screen character. Of course, it doesn’t exactly get there in terms of the actual quality of the film; in the nicest way possible, Markiplier is best as an actor when he isn’t speaking. Perhaps it is the result of being a YouTuber whose voice is forever associated with ridiculous reaction videos, but it’s often difficult to take his dialogue seriously. As a whole, he does a decent job with a script that is quite awkward (and to be clear, it’s his own writing); it’s just that a decent job is not enough when you are the only actor on screen. However, when considering the fact that this film, with its ambitious and strange concept, would never even have been greenlit by a major studio, one is compelled to focus on the ambition instead of the many individual flaws.
Actually, the ambition did pay off, at least to some degree. Despite containing no industry backing, the film has grossed over $37 million dollars as of the time of me writing this. As a result, it has become popular to view the film as indicative of a shift away from the existing ecosystem of the film industry. However, it is obviously impossible for any independent filmmaker who is not massively wealthy to circumvent the traditional distribution system, so the film’s success seems more like a proof of concept; this can be done, you just need to already be rich. That doesn’t really represent a huge change, although one could easily see the film as indicative of what cinema might look like if the big studios and distribution system falls apart, which seems possible as a result of declining profits and an increasingly risk-averse studio system.
If there is any sort of broad statement that can be inferred from this odd film’s release and financial success, it is that the dissolution of the current power structure within the filmworld need not result in a complete destruction of creativity at the hands of various kinds of AI and “vertical content”. While Markiplier is by no means the type of established filmmaker who would be at the forefront of these changes, it bodes well that the first widely distributed film made by a Hollywood outsider in recent years is, above all else, weird. In short, Iron Lung isn’t good—but it fails in an interesting way. In an era where mainstream cinema is universally decried as being a regurgitation of a regurgitation, even failing creatively is an achievement worth noting.
