From a surprise trailer drop on his YouTube channel, popular content creator Markiplier revealed that he is directing, writing, and starring in a feature film based off of the short horror game Iron Lung. Not only does this mark Markiplier’s feature film debut, he is making a movie of a game that he helped popularize after playing it on his YouTube channel less than a year ago.
Markiplier has some experience in filmmaking from his more creative content on YouTube. For example, he’s been the key mind behind interactive YouTube movies like In Space with Markiplier and The Heist with Markiplier. This work marks his first feature film, though, as he will co-star with actress Caroline Rose Kaplan.
As for the game, Iron Lung started as a short horror game that players could complete in one sitting, lending well to YouTubers and other content creators playing it and reacting to it. The premise is simple: a convict is sent in a small submarine called the Iron Lung to explore an ocean of blood on an unexplored plant. What makes the game so scary is that players have only a camera to see their surroundings, taking pictures while traversing the dark depths of a blood ocean. With nothing but a map and some coordinate-focused ship controls, players must take pictures of every marked space on the map.
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After the game grew in popularity, the developer David Szymanski added more to the game, including an in-submarine computer that players can access to learn more about the world of the game. Video essays from popular content creators only added to the lore, discovering more and more of a game that started with just a submarine and a camera.
Now, Markiplier is aiming to take the claustrophobia and thalassophobia that the original game provides and put it into a movie. No release date is set, with the teaser trailer as all the news fans have to go off so far.
