Mark Edward Fischbach has announced that his live-action film based on the Iron Lung video game is nearly complete. Known online as “Markiplier”, the popular YouTuber made the announcement on February 1 with the intent to reassure his audience that his regular schedule of content creation will soon be restored to normal, as work on the film has disrupted his routine over the past few months.
Markiplier is most well known on the internet for his entertaining playthroughs of low-budget indie horror games, though he has more recently also branched out into viewer-directed films reminiscent of the “Choose-Your-Own-Story Adventure” novels of the 1990s. In a departure from his usual, highly comedic content, promotional materials for the Iron Lung film appear to indicate that it will have a much darker and more serious tone.
Markiplier first presented a playthrough of the video game Iron Lung on May 19, 2022. This was followed by a second playthrough two months later. The plot of the video game involves a condemned criminal sent to investigate a bizarre ocean of blood discovered on a barren moon decades after every star and habitable world has mysteriously vanished.
Created by Pennsylvanian David Szymanski, Iron Lung’s gameplay involves descending to the bottom of this blood ocean in a rickety submersible and investigating its depths. The player makes use of a simple map to keep track of the sub’s location and uses a grainy black-and-white camera to view what lies on the ocean floor.
In June of 2023, Markiplier was briefly hospitalized with eye problems during the filming of Iron Lung due to complications arising from submerging himself in stage blood. In a video dated June 30, Markiplier reassured his audience that he was fine and quipped, “Turns out a lot can happen when you’re going for the record for most blood in a horror movie!”
RELATED: Geeks + Gamers Takes MegaCon Orlando 2024 by Storm!
Prior to this announcement, a photograph had recently appeared on social media showing Markiplier in hospital with severely inflamed sclera, prompting much speculation from fans, some of whom thought he might be dead. Speaking about his experience with triage, he said, “Turns out you get skipped right to the front of the line if you’ve got eye troubles. […] You know, when I actually die, it’s gonna be hilarious. There’s gonna be memes for days.”
In October of 2023, Markiplier presented a dramatic live-action trailer for Iron Lung featuring the very shot that may have led to his hospitalization. The trailer opens with a view of a starfield which is then slowly revealed to be nothing but pinpricks of light on a pool of blood, out of which Markiplier’s character slowly arises.
Prior to Iron Lung, Markiplier’s most recent foray into live-action storytelling was a “Choose-Your-Own-Story” style adventure entitled In Space with Markiplier, which debuted on April 4, 2022. In the film, the viewer plays the captain of a colony ship that runs into disaster. As the tragedy unfolds, the viewer gets to choose what actions the captain will take.
As yet, there is no specific release date for Markiplier’s Iron Lung film.
What do you think about Markiplier and Iron Lung? Let us know in the comments below!
Leave a Reply