Iron Lung - Send Help

Don't normally see two movies on a single weekend, but had to support Markiplier and been wanting to see Send Help...so I saw both.

Let's start with...

It was around the fall of 2014 when a friend of mine sent me a link to a goofy guy playing "Five Nights at Freddy's". Jump scares led to high-pitched screaming and the commentary made me laugh. His sheer determination to not only beat all nights, but the last night on 20 was a sight to behold.

That's how I met Markiplier. A gaming YouTuber I've followed and supported for more than a decade. I've seen his drive from a young man in bedroom to taking a chance heading West to follow his dream. Learning the craft and becoming more. Becoming better each day. Amassing not just a large following, but a community of fans of people who love him for the genuine person he is.

Iron Lung wasn't his first foray into film making. On his channel he did two challenging Choose Your Own Adventure style shows: "A Heist with Markiplier" and "In Space with Markiplier." They were done for the channel, and done with so much heart.

Of all the indie-horror games he's played over the years I would not put Iron Lung up there as my first or even second choice to make a film out of. The concept of the game was simple. You play a criminal navigating a Blood Ocean to certain coordinates and snap a photo. The later updated added lore to it, both of which were used for the movie.

A simple concept, and he did so much with it. While the first bit of it moved a little slow and quiet, I was dozing mostly cause I was tired from lack of sleep and not necessarily the quiet moments, it picked up.

Let's start with how it looked. The set was just a single submarine. The creative team did an exceptional job building it into reality. The low bit look was brought to life in crisp realism. I kind of wanted to take it for a spin. Just without the monsters and fear of death.

The cinematography was absolutely amazing. Given what they were working with in the tight areas, a lot of it was close-ups of Mark's face. The slow pans over the console and a lot of the close-ups on Mark were beautiful. The quality of the video was very crisp. It felt a bit cleaner than most movies I've seen recently.

Now, Mark's acting...

Mark hit every emotion on the spectrum and did it in a believeable way. The isolation, the anger, frustration of just wanting answers that he wasn't being given, his fear. He spent nearly the entire movie just acting with a speaker or completely solo talking to himself.

I cannot even imagine the toll doing this had to have taken on him. The acting was so raw and visceral. You truly felt the weight of this man, trapped on a compact submarine fearing for his life just wanting to do one thing...survive.

The last 20 minutes it ramped up into utter chaos. It felt very much like Evil Dead 2. If you saw, you know what I'm talking about.

This is 100% the little independent movie that could. For a film that was completely self-financed, fans being the reasons it was in all the theaters it was and doing as well as it did this weekend Mark should be proud of the work he's done. Coming in second behind a Sam Rami movie is no easy slouch and the two were close all weekend.

Could have been a little shorter. It felt long at the start, but overall it was great horror movie. The rising intensity builds as it goes. I'd recommend this to anyone with a love of horror, horror games, and of course the awesome Markiplier.

4/5

Let's leave the cold recess of Blood Oceans into a deserted island.

There are SO many times I was watching this and a single phrase kept repeating in my head...Freaking Sam Rami.

Rachel McAdams plays Linda Liddle, yeah we're starting with alliteration. She's cute and quirky and a bit meek, lives with a bird and bit of a fan of Survivor and survival skills. She's works in corporate strategy and is supposed to be up for a VP promotion.

Dylan O'Brian plays Bradley Preston, Linda's boss. He of course doesn't take her seriously because she's a woman and doesn't have that killer look that he wants in a VP, so he hires his golfing buddy and frat bro.

Plane crashes. Everyone but her and Bradley die. The pair washes up on a small Thailand island. She has only one goal...Survive. Okay, two goals, she also wants to prove herself that she'd be a great VP. She goes to work keeping them both alive. She mends his wounds, builds shelter, finds water sources and food.

The whole time I'm watching I'm on Team Liddle. She's smart, creative and brilliant. Her time spent learning how to survive an island so she could be on Survivor pays off in dividends. The added bonus of getting a little revenge on her douchey boss was of course fun to see.

But this is a Sam Rami movie. While not horror per say, it does dial up some as it goes on. You think, they're bonding and everything's great. They both have turns at going a little nuts. To be fair, its understandable. Being trapped on a deserted island will do that to you.

It's mostly when Linda goes full on Misery on him. She wants to keep them stuck on this island. She's thriving here and still trying to prove herself. So, when she sees help (a boat), she hides. When Bradley's fiance comes with a boat...well, she goes a little nuts.

Sam Rami's style of filmmaking shines through this movie. The typical camera flying through the terrain, gross out shots and so many Rami staples. Don't recall seeing the Oldsmobile Delta 88 in it, but I'd have to watch again to look closely.

The ending did not go the way I was thinking once it really got going, but at the same time, it couldn't have ended any other way.

Sad to say even when she was at her craziest, preparing to castrate him, I was equally terrified of her and yet, still turned on. It's the McAdams effect, what can I say. She was great in this role.

It's a fun time and definitely should be seen in theaters or once it hits streaming. Dealers choice.

4/5

Coming soon...the hopefully FINAL Strangers 3 and we head back to Woodsboro for Scream 7.