Horror as a genre is both universal and incredibly specific at the same time. Something that scares one individual will not always scare another, which makes crafting a good scary experience incredibly difficult. Iron Lung is an indie horror simulator game that manages to capture a truly terrifying setting and make it universally horrifying using very little, leaning on the principle that less is more. It has the player exploring a dark ocean of blood in a tiny submersible using nothing but a camera affixed to the exterior of the vessel. The gameplay itself is simple, and the claustrophobic environment is filled with the ominous moaning of the battered hull as the Iron Lung works its way through the sanguine ocean.
Iron Lung is so ingeniously scary that popular YouTuber and entrepreneur Markiplier is in the final stages of releasing a movie adaptation of the game. But Iron Lung works so well as a video game that any filmed adaptation will have some massive shoes to fill. There are some huge hurdles Markiplier and his team will need to overcome in making the jump from single-player video game to full-length movie.
Iron Lung Relies On The Horror Of The Mind
Iron Lung is a first-person simulator game developed by David Szymanski, an indie game developer with a history of gory horror under his belt. The player steps into the shoes of an unnamed convict tasked with piloting the titular Iron Lung through a literal ocean of blood. The submersible vessel is sealed shut with no windows, only sensors to indicate direction and a camera on the outside. The player must direct the sub to several points of interest on a map and snap photos when they arrive. They have been promised freedom at the end of their mission, but a note left by a previous occupant of the vessel implies that this isn't what lies in store
While relatively unremarkable on the surface, Iron Lung is actually an incredibly deep game with a lot going on outside the tight little hell the player finds themselves in. However, it is up to the player themselves to seek out answers. The protagonist is silent and never comments on the goings-on. It is entirely possible to play through the game without uncovering much about the lore or setting. But a more enterprising player will be able to uncover far more about the universe they find themselves in when they use the sub's terminal.
Iron Lung takes place in the distant future after an event known as the "Quiet Rapture." All stars and habitable planets have disappeared, leaving the remaining known life in the universe on space stations and starships. The remainder of humanity split into different faction with access to different resources, which sparked conflict between them. The Consolidation of Iron (COI) chooses to use its prisoners of war in the Iron Lungs rather than waste the human capital. The protagonist of Iron Lung is likely one of these prisoners, captured during a conflict and forced now to pilot this doomed craft. And the Iron Lung is doomed; the subs are used as a way to both gather information and to dispose of people. Further investigation reveals that the blood oceans are made of human blood and the excursions into their depths are for the sake of finding the resources needed to sustain what remains of human life.
Boredom is key to Iron Lung's overall effect. The game relies on the player dropping their guard to build its atmosphere and make them even more vulnerable. Horror comes from everything the player doesn't see, the sounds and paranoia that the game creates through routine are important for the overall experience. Even the title calls back to this isolation and boredom. A historical iron lung was a mechanism used by victims of polio (or other diseases) in order to keep them breathing despite their lungs no longer functioning. It could be an incredibly isolating existence to be in an iron lung, and it was often spoken about with dread. Opening the machine could be a death sentence, and the same applies to the player character as they approach the climax of the game and things become more and more dire.
Iron Lung is a deeply isolating experience, quiet and still until all hell literally breaks loose. The horror is both universal and deeply personal as it taps into the parts of the human psyche that fears the unknown and the deep sea all at once. But it requires engagement from the player to get that level of horror across, and it demands interaction despite its leaning into monotonous action for the gameplay.
It Probably Won't Make A Very Scary Movie
In April 2023, Youtuber Markiplier announced that he would be adapting Iron Lung into a movie, written by and starring himself. Markiplier made his career on YouTube by playing and reacting to multiple horror games, most famously completing Five Nights At Freddy's infamous 20/20/20/20 mode and declaring himself the "king" of FNAF. He joined the site in 2012 and has amassed over 35 million followers since, becoming one of the biggest names on the site and especially in the gaming space. This will be his first foray onto the big screen. Markiplier has a long history of being scared by games, so this should be a match made in heaven.
But it is incredibly tricky to adapt horror games into movies. Even relatively good adaptations such as the 2006 Silent Hill film don't quite manage to capture the overall horror that the games are able to impart. Part of that is because psychological horror games rely on the individual relationships that they build with the player through the course of the gameplay. The things that make video games scary are often not the same that make movies scary, because video games are an interactive medium that requires participation while movies are a passive experience. The fear of the characters on a movie screen is fundamentally different from the persona fear a player has for their digital representative in a video game.
Iron Lung is also a particularly difficult concept to adapt to film. The game relies on still photographs and boredom to build its atmosphere, and movies are an incredibly difficult place to lean on such concepts. The game itself clocks in at just about an hour long, making sure to keep its gameplay tight and the momentum going even in silence. The majority of theatrical release movies, which Markiplier intends this to be, average out around the two-hour mark, and even adding on thirty minutes to such a tight experience could tank the whole thing.
While it is interesting to see a horror creator like Markiplier take this leap, it is already a difficult subject to translate from one medium to another. Iron Lung is as quiet and meandering as the titular submarine itself, and it's hard to imagine how this will translate into film. Either way, the project is an ambitious proposition on the part of the creative team involved and will hopefully be able to show how horror games can be faithfully adapted to the big screen, scares and all.