Parents' Guide to Iron Lung

The debut feature by YouTuber Mark Fischbach, this horror movie is sometimes confusing and disorienting— and certainly more discomfiting than scary—but it's also memorably atmospheric and mysterious. Writer-director and star Fischbach, who's better known to most as Markiplier, adapted the Iron Lung screenplay himself from David Szymanski's video game and appears in every scene, almost always by himself (though fellow popular YouTube gamer Jacksepticeye, whose real name is Seán McLoughlin, also has a role). As someone who's posted thousands of videos (mostly playthroughs of horror games), he has arguably logged more hours in front of a camera, and probably behind it, than any Oscar-nominated movie star. And his on-screen persona is goofy, scruffy, and appealing (he's also known for his series of "try not to laugh" videos).

So can he adapt to actually making horror? Yes and no. Very often, it's not quite clear what's going on in Iron Lung, both because of the storytelling and because of erratic camerawork and/or the overwhelming sound design. The movie is also far too long, almost fatally; it takes some dedication to get through the slow bits. Yet there's something undeniably creepy here that draws viewers in. The small, one-person craft is all we see, and we only learn bits and pieces of the world around us, including vague details of the crime Simon committed that got him here. The photos he takes, which light up a screen and quickly fade, are grainy and unreliable. The craft shudders and groans, and we can only wonder what's out there, in the dark, in the gooey red. On the whole, you have to hand it to Fischbach, who financed and distributed Iron Lung himself, for his ambition and gumption; certainly there's not a lot of that in the movie biz these days.