Iron Lung - What Horror is supposed to be | Review (possible spoilers)

Narrative:

Imagine the following: 

You are stuck inside an iron tank on an alien moon, surrounded by an ocean of blood. The tank has a window but it's forced to be shut tight with an iron layer for protection, because the pressure is too high for the glass. Your only way to see? A built-in radiation camera that shows you a static image of what's in front of you for about 5 seconds before it fades into oblivion. You're on a mission though; You must move the tank to specific coordinates to take a picture and while doing so, it's becoming abundantly clear that you are not the only thing that is underneath those layers of blood...

Meanwhile, the story tells you that the stars are dying, along with its planets that could have been a chance to inhabit life. This has been going on for quite some time now. The event has been dubbed "The Quiet Rapture". In these dire times, humans have become desperate to find any planets that survived that event, so convicts are sent out to explore, with the promise that if they succed with the mission, they will have earned their freedom.

You are one of these convicts.

Game Review:

Cosmic horror has undeniably become one of the scariest types of genres for me personally after this game dropped about 3 years ago.

The whole atmosphere is dreadful, the scenario so surreal and all along, you are made to believe that you are in fact helping humaity by giving up your life to this mission. The things you find throughout the gameplay make little to no sense and much of it is up for interpretation, which I find to be very appealing.

The setting is so unnerving and claustrophobic and does an incredible job at putting shivers down your spine with every move you make, as well as with the story it builds up.

Movie Review:

The only creative change that has been made is the dialogue. There's more of it than there is in the game, which does make sense, but aside from that, the movie stays very true to its source material, although it amplifies the sensation of dread and panic ten-fold. 

How? With the soundtrack and the shots of the surroundings. They go hand in hand and build a dramatic, terrifying atmosphere where every emotion you see the characters go through you can feel within yourself. There is a constant tension, which forces you to always be expecting something to happen. The movie does not leave a single moment for you to fully relax, because you feel how dire the situation is, both for all of humanity as well as for our main character. 

What I find to be the most interesting is that there are no jumpscares. At all. You are constantly led to believe that there will eventually be one though. This stands out to me, because many movies now really enjoy scaring you in that way, and I think it can take away a lot of the fear that you're supposed to feel throughout a horror movie. It breaks the immersion and lets you take a breather to remind yourself that "hey, this is just a movie, chill out". So it was a very pleasant surprise to learn that there isn't a single one of those moments in this film.

There is also something very human about the whole experience;

There is some forshadowing happening and the situation our main character finds himself in is absolutely terrifying, painful, derealizing and surreal. The sheer amount of panic he conveys is evidence of him regretting his choices. His actions are relatable, everything he feels is relatable in every given situation and what I think makes our main character the most realistic is that he's trying to cling onto every single, tiny piece of hope and humanity he can. 

We as humans go through pain and suffering. We endure so much in this lifetime. When we are in a devastating amount of pain of any kind, our usual instinct is "How can I survive this? What can I cling onto?", and often times the answer is hope. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope that in a few hours, you will have earned your freedom and all the suffering you had to go through was all worth it. 

Until the very end, our main character clings onto this hope. He is devastated and contemplating and suffering, yes, but he is not allowing himself to give up without a fight. He believes that this too, will pass and will have just been another dreadful, traumatizing experience in his life. And that is so humane and realistic. And that is why you root for him.

You can truly tell that this project was made with passion and love for the craft, and in only 3 years, Markiplier did what most fim makers today can't: Building a unique and unforgettable experience.

Just a little side-note; I find the way the movie is built up to be very interesting.

Usually, it follows a kind of pattern. First, the introduction, then the conflict, eventually the climax and very lastly the ending. Most of the action usually happens around the conflict and it should spike at the climax, so that you know you can relax towards the end of it all.

This movie however already spikes at the introduction, because you're hit with an imminent sense of desperation and fear. Afterwards, it calms down slightly, although there is a constant tenstion that forces you to pay attention to every single detail throughout the entire lenght of the film. I've counted a total of 3 different spikes of atmosphere, aside from the introduction, and the ending of the movie could very well be counted as its very own extra climax. I think this kind of set up for the story is what gives it its very own character. A distinct detail only found in this movie.

Conclusion:

Iron Lung - both the game and the movie - is a very unique type of approach to the horror genre. It's a breath of - maybe not so - fresh air when compared to the majority of horror movies we've gotten over the last few years by big companies. I think it really goes to show that you don't need a massive team or sell your soul to corporate to create something impactful and inspiring. 

This is a very personal note but most horror movies actually make me cry. Not because they're terrible lol, but because there's always some backstory that makes me feel for the characters rather than immersing me into the terror of the main story. Although the main character of Iron Lung does have a backstory that is interesting and somewhat unjust towards him, it's not broken the main story with its explanation. In fact, I would argue it only enhanced the atmosphere through it.

I will 100% recommend this movie and game to anyone in need of something unique within the horror genre. If this doesn't terrify you, I don't know what will.

10/10, would watch again and will buy a physical copy as soon as it drops. :)

Thank you for reading! Love to you & stay determined! <3