Iron Lung
“Like watching beautiful paint dry”
Rating: 3 out of 5
How it sticks: Lingers – thought about it later that night
First Look:
Watching Iron Lung feels deeply immersive and deeply confined. The film traps you inside its submarine world so effectively that claustrophobia becomes part of the viewing experience. It’s tense, quiet, and suffocating, leaving you unsettled more than exhilarated or frightened.
On how it’s made:
Cinematography / Framing
The cinematography is the clear standout. The color grading and meticulous detail inside the ship pull you in and make the environment feel tactile and real. Long, angled shots linger on the same components again and again (the navigation arrow, the photo button, the ship’s coordinates) forcing you to inhabit Simon’s limited physical and mental space. The repetition works; I genuinely felt trapped alongside him.
Sound / Score
With very little overt action or creature exposure, sound becomes the film’s primary vehicle for suspense. The score is tight, tense, and constantly unsettling, guiding your anxiety more than the visuals ever could. Silence, mechanical noise, and distortion do much of the storytelling.
Performances
Mark’s performance as Simon is genuinely impressive, especially given that this is essentially a one-man show and his first major acting role. The character says very little, but the performance never feels empty. It’s easy to forget his online persona, which is no small feat, and he remains the emotional anchor throughout even when the film itself starts to drag.
Film theory moment:
What tension does the film never resolve?
Iron Lung never fully clarifies what is real and what isn’t. What exactly happened with the space station Simon helped destroy? What is the creature? How much of what we’re seeing is distorted perception versus objective reality? This ambiguity can be read as intentional – an invitation to sit with uncertainty – or as a byproduct of staying too faithful to sparse source material without expanding its thematic stakes. For me, it straddles that line uncomfortably.
One shot I can’t stop thinking about:
The first appearance of the live creature on the X-ray camera followed almost immediately by its disappearance.
Why it matters:
Emotionally, it delivers pure dread before undercutting it with an unexpectedly funny reaction from Mark’s character Simon. Structurally, it’s the film at its most confident: tension, payoff, and character all landing in the same beat. Thematically, it encapsulates the movie’s obsession with fleeting certainty – just when you think you’ve seen something real, it’s gone.
Rewatch value: One and done
Key takeaway:
Iron Lung sits somewhere between a creature feature and an action thriller, never fully committing to either. Its cinematography and formal control are striking and refreshing, but when all the action takes place in one setting, sustaining momentum is a tough row to hoe. The first half succeeds; the final act falters with jarring cuts and distorted POV shots.
This film is for fans of the game, fans of Mark, and the partners or friends of those two groups. It’s not quite mainstream enough to break through to wider audiences, but it remains an enjoyable experience for film buffs willing to sink into its atmosphere (even if it is 30 minutes too long).
