On January 30th, 2026, the highly anticipated film created by YouTube sensation Mark Edward Fischbach, also known as Markiplier, was released to immediate financial success, grossing 21 million dollars opening weekend with a budget of only 3 million. So today, let’s find out if the film really lives up to the hype or if it’s another horror game movie adaptation that fails to be scary.
Based on the 2022 indie horror game of the same name, created by David Szymanski. The film and game are set in a universe where humans are on the verge of extinction, and after something called the quiet rapture, where thousands of humans went missing, moons covered in human blood emerge and hold the secrets to what truly happened. The film follows a convict who is sent down to the bottom of the blood ocean in a ironlung, a scrap metal submarine, and is forced to explore the ocean for his freedom. Overall, the film does an amazing job adapting the world of the short indie game and really helps to flesh out this setting.
The film does an amazing job at encapsulating the claustrophobic atmosphere of a rusty and dingy submarine and the psychological impact that it has on the people forced inside of it. The submarine can also take grainy photos of the ocean floor, which results in some truly haunting imagery of the blood oceans’ depths. The sound, as well, helps encapsulate the setting with gross and disturbing noises that can be heard throughout the entire film.
The thing I was most concerned about was the acting. This is Markipler’s first super serious acting role, and I wasn’t quite sure if he could encapsulate the stressfulness that person would be in if they were in the Convicts’ situation. However, Mark does a great job and helps the film feel like a real psychological horror.
Overall, Ironlung is an amazing passion project that should be the blueprint for all future video game horror films. My only gripe with the film is that it did feel like it went on for a little bit too long, and it could have been shortened by like 10 to 20 minutes. However, I still encourage everyone to see what I believe could be one of the best psychological horror films of the past decade.
9/10
