After a “Quiet Rapture” destroys all planets and stars, the few humans left have grown desperate. A convict is thrown and wielded into a makeshift, rusty submarine and forced to navigate an ocean of blood while nearly blind. This is the situation that drives the plot of “Iron Lung,” a new horror sci-fi movie that has grown massively popular.
Adapted from the 2022 indie horror game by David Szymanski, “Iron Lung” (2026) has grossed $21 million globally in its opening week after being self-made, marketed, and distributed with a miniscule $3 million budget. The film was written, directed, and starred in by Mark Fischbach, better known as Markiplier, a gaming YouTuber who has been on the platform for over a decade.
“I respect how the movie creates the same feeling of confusion and claustrophobia [as the game],” psychology major Haley Proctor said to the FSView. “Indie psychological horror video games are basically my favorite genre of media, so I have loads of respect for this movie.”
‘Iron Lung’: The backstory
Markiplier bypassed traditional Hollywood marketing in favor of a self-made, grassroots campaign, motivating fans to purchase “Iron Lung” tickets weeks in advance just because his name is attached to the project.
Traditional booking companies initially offered only 60 theatres across the US, but Markiplier’s loyal fanbase was not satisfied and requested their local AMC and Regal theatres show the film, leading to “Iron Lung”‘s showing in over 4,000 theatres internationally.
“I grew up watching Mark. That’s it. I have always believed in that man and always will,” sophomore psychology major Allie Cooper said to the FSView. “I’ve watched every project of his in support. And they’re all wonderful.”
Local Torchlight Studios producer Jack Gaffney noted that an indie film with success like this is a unique feat. Markiplier brought starpower and a fanbase to the film that ultimately pushed it further than expected.
“I think the principle of that is people like believing in that person, and pushing them to make something that they truly believe in … And I think that’s where the main success of ‘Iron Lung’ comes from. Is really just that strong fan base,” Gaffney said to the FSView.
Who is Markiplier? Triple threat YouTuber, actor, show creator
Innovative projects are not new to Markiplier. Despite often being pigeonholed as a “Let’s Play YouTuber,” Markiplier has been pushing the boundaries of video web content since 2020.
In 2017, Markiplier pioneered “choose-your-own-adventure” style content on YouTube with “Who Killed Markiplier?” — a four-episode web series in which he played multiple characters, including himself. This led to the creation of two fan-adored YouTube Original specials whose increased budgets allowed for even more routes viewers could take: “A Heist With Markiplier” (2019) and “In Space with Markiplier” (2022).
“I was actually very shocked at the level of production and editing,” professional sales major Sophia Quevedo said to the FSView. “I thought Mark’s acting was extremely impressive for a non-professional; he really was able to sell him being a character and not just ‘Markiplier’. I will say, it felt like a very long short film and could maybe have benefited from a few changes cinematography-wise.”
‘Iron Lung’ combats budget constraints
Unlike most indie films, “Iron Lung” was completely self-funded by Markiplier. However, crowdfunding is essential to most indie films; even “Shelby Oaks,” another horror film spearheaded by a popular YouTube creator, had to crowdfund $1.4 million.
As an indie filmmaker who has produced multiple films in Florida State University’s Torchlight program, Gaffney knows what it takes to create a film outside the traditional studio machine. It’s something many indie filmmakers find worth it for the unrestrained creative freedom.
“Budget-wise, it’s kind of funny. It all kind of reflects what, you know, the economy as a whole. So it’s … the cost of everything has gone up, which means the cost of everything in a production has gone up, how much you’re going to pay your staff,” Gaffney said. “It’s really hard to do crowdfunding, I will say, you get one shot at it, and if you mess it up, you can’t really do it again, because then you’re just kind of asking for handouts and people see that to be a little sad.”
Because of the modest budget, the “Iron Lung” team spent every penny on practical effects, an impressive set, and gallons of fake blood (80,000, to be exact, creating the bloodiest movie ever made).
The film was extremely intimate and took place almost entirely within the “Iron Lung” itself. The care put into this set, combined with the eerie sound design and dialogue, makes this film a very faithful adaptation of its fairly one-note source material.
“I think audiences are really looking for something that is practical, that even has that charm of, you know, a scrappy independent movie,” Gaffney said. “For me, personally, it’ll work for me if the movie has cheap blood, and that’s like, the tone of it, but people want to be reminded that they’re watching something sometimes, you know, not always wanting something that’s hyper realistic.”
This “scrappy” feel is more than a budgetary constraint; it is a manifestation of the film’s independence. For many fans, this movie is not about competing with big-budget studio films, though it did; it is about what is possible when a passionate, creative team is given the opportunity to create without constraints.
“I have posted about this movie since I knew Mark was creating it, three years ago. It is wonderful and proves you don’t need to be in the hell of Hollywood to be seen and make wonderful projects,” Cooper said. “It was a huge impact that many will remember and be influenced by.”
Grace Myatt is a Senior Staff Writer for the FSView & Florida Flambeau, the student-run, independent online news service for the FSU community. Email our staff at contact@fsview.com.
This article originally appeared on FSU News: ‘Iron Lung’ shakes up the box office
Reporting by Grace Myatt, Senior Staff Writer, FSView / FSU News
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