Iron Lung Review

Review of Iron Lung (2026) by screenqueeen: 👎 2.5/5

72/100

as a concept this is cool as hell but i think it's probably better off explored as a video game. there's virtually nothing cinematic about this to me. shot like a youtube original, sounds like a badly mixed video game on its own, the acting has three modes: edgy disregard for Simon's personal feelings, acting cool/tough, yelling. it was cool to hear some actual voice actors here and there but there was entirely too much going on with the comm calls. although it hinted at it as a possible thread that never got built on, the approach of having Simon hallucinate or recall (that's not even totally clear) past conversations was neat. i don't know what was going on with the "there's people at the bottom of the blood sea" arc but that never seemed to go anywhere.

i was getting a little distracted with how each little thing that Simon interacts with was clearly a part of the video game's own mechanics very obviously grafted on to serve a linear story (whether or not this is the same story as the game, idk and i will likely never play because i have separate issues with myself and horror games sadly). too much seemed like it was Important until it was dropped or shown to be unimportant.

still, i think i would prefer video game film adaptations to take this route rather than the AAA model everyone knows no one likes. but maybe do some real adapting to fit the medium of film a little more instead of making something feel too close to the medium you're adapting from. this felt very much 'on rails' and too safe for what horror it was trying to communicate for me. i think having someone else working on this project would have done wonders for it and mr. mark would've been able to diversify better. i think he's better doing things behind the camera rather than in front of it.