Independent filmmakers have been the lifeblood of horror for about as long as horror has been a thing. From George A. Romero making Night of the Living Dead to more recent sensations like Kyle Edward Ball’s Skinamarkink, that indie spirit is an enormous part of the genre. Now, YouTuber Markiplier is making his mark on the world of independent cinema with his video game adaptation Iron Lung. In theaters this weekend, it’s already a game-changing sensation.
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Iron Lung was initially released as an indie video game developed and published by David Szymanski. Markiplier, aka Mark Fischbach, set his sights on turning the submarine horror adventure into a movie. It was confirmed in April 2023 that Iron Lung was getting the movie treatment, with Fischbach set to write, star in and direct himself. In October of that year, a teaser trailer was uploaded to Markiplier’s YouTube channel. It currently has nearly 11 million views.
Fischbach threw himself into the project. While the budget hasn’t been revealed, it’s said to be quite small with the shot lasting around 35 days. With a small cast and a small crew, he had to navigate a lot of obstacles, including the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023. He even turned down a role in Blumhouse’s smash hit Five Nights at Freddy’s in order to focus on his own movie. As for what the movie itself is about? The synopsis reads as follows:
“Set in a post-apocalyptic future where an event known as ‘the quiet rapture’ caused all known stars and habitable planets in the universe to disappear, a convict is sent to search an ocean of blood discovered on a desolate moon, using a small submarine nicknamed the ‘Iron Lung.’”
Markiplier has 38 million loyal subscribers and nearly double that number of fans across his various social media accounts. While other YouTubers have tried before to galvanize their audience around projects, this proved quickly to be different. Markiplier’s strategy was working in a way that couldn’t possibly be ignored, despite virtually zero help from Hollywood whatsoever.
He talked about the movie on his YouTube channel in the years during its creation. He made sure his fans knew about it. He made them feel like part of the process. He motivated them to help turn it into an actual event and not just some pet project from a YouTuber. He successfully galvanized his millions of followers around the movie, getting it a great deal of mainstream media attention without a typical (not to mention very expensive) marketing campaign.
In December 2025, things got very real. Markiplier revealed that Iron Lung would be getting a theatrical release in January. What’s more, he was handling distribution independently, rather than partnering with a studio. He also boasted, per Variety, that it holds a world record “for most blood in a horror movie. Or any movie for that matter.” The previous record was held by 2023’s ultra bloody Evil Dead Rise. In a statement, Fischbach said the following:
“They said it shouldn’t be done. Not that it couldn’t be done, people have made movies before, just that it would be ‘woefully unwise’ to tackle writing, directing, acting and editing a movie myself. Showed them. My bathroom might be a render farm now but I can’t wait for people to see the blood, sweat, blood, tears, blood and blood that went into this movie from everyone involved.”
As for the release, Fischbach partnered with Bill Herting’s Centurion to help get the movie booked into theaters. Initially, they wanted to keep it small, just a few theaters. Fischbach knew that his audience was bigger than that.
“I hope he doesn’t think I’m throwing shade on him about this, but when I first started talking to him he was like, ‘Yeah, we’ll start in three theaters and we’ll see how it goes from there,’” Fischbach said in an interview with IndieWire. “And I was trying to be like, ‘This is not ego. I’m so sorry to say this, but I have an audience of millions. It would be insultingly low — not to me, to them — to be like three.’”
That number would have, indeed, been an insult. In theaters this weekend, Iron Lung is playing on thousands of screens not just in North America, but all across the world. Markiplier’s rabid fans were calling theaters all over the place, begging them to book the movie. It’s expected to go neck-and-neck with Sam Raimi’s big studio horror movie Send Help at the box office on opening weekend. That’s no small thing. This isn’t some impressive opening grading on a curve. This is impressive by Hollywood studio standards.
Come what may at the box office, it’s already proof positive that YouTubers can, under the right circumstances, have a place in Hollywood. Granted, not everyone has the success that Markiplier has but this is new school indie filmmaking. This shows what’s possible in the modern landscape of creator-driven content. It can generate legitimate, buzz-worthy cinema.
Iron Lung is in theaters now.
