Cosmic horror is a chronically underserved genre in movies, perhaps because it’s pretty damn hard to describe exactly what it is. It’s that strange junction between sci-fi and mystic horror, underwritten with a sense of existential dread, the fear of the unknown and being at the mercy of an uncaring universe populated by unknowably alien gods. There’s horror and sci-fi movies out there with elements of “Cosmic Horror” – arguable or otherwise – but few movies that commit and embrace it fully.
So, IRON LUNG Is pretty good on that score. All those tropes are ticked. And it’s actually a pretty decent movie – with some caveats. It’s a high concept – or perhaps just a wild concept – movie. The general non-spoiler synopsis is that after an apocalyptic event called “The Quiet Rapture” has removed all planets and suns with life from the universe, the scattered remnants of humanity, those left in ships and space stations between systems, discover a moon covered in an ocean of blood. Deep in the depths of this hellish environment may lie the means to save the human race, so a pilot is sent into it in a special submarine – the Iron Lung of the title. And spooky happenings then occur, naturally.
The film is told entirely from the perspective of the pilot, with rest of his interactions mainly being radio conversations. So that role needed someone who could deliver a compelling performance throughout. And to give him his credit, Mark Fishbach (I refuse to call him his “youtube name” Markiplier) is surprisingly good. Especially given he also directed, produced, co-wrote and edited the darn whole thing too! It’s a claustrophobic and tense movie with some nice touches. The cinematography is particularly well done, with some really nice extreme close ups of the rusting dials and controls of the decaying sub. And the sound design and music builds a sustained atmosphere of omnipresent doom.
But I did say there were some caveats, and the obvious one is the length. This movie is based on a video game, and the original game is a short story-led one, designed to be played through in about an hour. But for some reason, this film version of it is over 2 hours long. And it really drags in places. There’s a certain amount of repetition to the story that makes you feel very aware of its game origins. It does pick up in the last act, but I’m pretty sure you could have streamlined this film down to 100 minutes and it would been all the better for it.
I guess that’s both the strength and the weakness of a truly independent film. You don’t have other people telling you “no”. Or making you do test screenings and forcing you trim it down. Many amazing films have suffered from that (especially at the hands of people like Weinstein or De Laurentis). But in this case, it might have been beneficial to have had a bit more pressure to tighten this baby up. Imagine if THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT had been 2 hours long? It would have been a slog and it wouldn’t have found the success it had.
Blair Witch is a good touchpoint, because this film has a surprisingly large number of indirect similarities to it and similar good things and bad things going on. The low budget is a bit apparent. The interior of the sub does look a bit cheap – like a home-made escape room. Or maybe one of the rooms in The Crystal Maze (with moodier lighting!) And the dialogue can be a bit muffled and indistinct at times, which makes it easy to miss certain plot points. I was a bit baffled at times as to what the hell was going on. But that wasn’t necessary a dealbreaker for a movie like this, which you pretty much just have to go along for the ride with – and accept it’s going to be a slightly trippy, dreamlike experience.
And ultimately, despite those misgivings, I really quite liked this movie. It’s a wildly original concept, that could have done with a bit more focus, variety and – probably – budget. But it’s still ORIGINAL – and that is a precious thing indeed these days. It’s like the bastard offspring of Tarkovsky and a young David Cronenberg. Haha – and speaking of Tarkovsky, I can imagine this film might have actually worked even better if it was made in Russian. It has the kind of gloomy fatalism that suits Slavic cinema. Life is cruel and unfair, but ho-hum. Back to the blood ocean we must go!
Now I’m going to watch a youtube play through of the video game version and see if I can make any more sense of the movie. If you like trippy cosmic horror and can be patient with slow movies, why not give it a try. And if you don’t… well. Plenty of other decent horror movies coming out soon!
