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For those who are unfamiliar, Sam Raimi Created the Evil Dead trilogy, directed the Toby McGuire Spider-Man films, and remains a noted figure in the long line of Marvel Universe writer-directors. Whether you like him or not, he's an Action-Horror Juggernaut that's established his place in film canon over the last 40 years. Distributors pick him up on name alone. Send Help is his 16th film, so to say he's a veteran of film distribution is no overstatement. Despite the ad blockers I run on my phone and tablet, I've personally seen so many ads for Send Help over the last six weeks that I'm tired of Rachel McAdams' face. Raimi can afford that kind of marketing saturation; he spent 40 million making this film. It opened yesterday in 3,475 theaters, which is on par with a typical "big budget" release spread.

On the other hand, Mark Fischbach is, well, Markiplier. Despite his long youtube career, in the larger film world he's an incredibly niche, small potatoes filmmaker. Anyone who's followed the plight of Qcode's podcast-to-miniseries adaptation, The Edge of Sleep, knows that Mark's incredibly focused and tenacious when it comes to polishing and distributing his work. He fought tooth and nail to get TEoS out of development hell, arguing with streaming services of all stripes, and eventually facing blatant sabotage by Amazon Prime, despite already being Emmy nominated for his previous webseries.

In the wake of all that static from the TV industry, Mark knew he had to get Iron Lung to an audience with no studio backing whatsoever. He and his wife Amy contacted 60 individual theaters, asking for distribution. There's been no ad space on websites, outside of the domains belonging to theaters showing the film. There have been no billboards, no promotional tours, no studio money. But that's where 38 million Markiplier fans have taken over.

Mark's viewers and longtime fans called and emailed their local theaters directly, en masse, because they wanted this movie. The three largest movie theater chains in America sat up and took notice, and international theater chains soon followed. Now, as I write this, Iron Lung is showing in 4161 theaters internationally. That's almost 700 more theaters than Send Help. It's made a 17% profit in 24 hours. For Send Help to make that kind of box office return on investment, it would have had to make 46.8 million yesterday alone - the same amount of money that Sinners made over its 3-day opening weekend.

I don't care if you like Markiplier's body of work or not. I've heard people call this film a "Vanity Project," or an "Ego Trip." I've seen several reviews for the film that are less than glowing. Frankly, I don't give a shit. The debut of this film, on this scale, is a massive achievement. It's an eldritch chamber-horror sci fi bottle film. The last time I encountered a film built like this (one set, carried by one actor, produced on a shoestring budget), it was the Willem Dafoe film Inside (2023). That film grossed less than a million dollars worldwide through its entire run.

Think about that. Markiplier outgrossed a fucking Willem Dafoe Movie. Three times over. In 24 hours.

Forbes, Variety, and so on are like "Huh. This Mark Of Pliers guy made a video game movie that's running with the big boys. Weird." Not one of them has thought to give Mark his flowers for the truly unprecedented nature of this debut. Tiny production. Overwhelming pushback. The beginnings of an unexpected triumph.

It's almost like the film industry built this unfairly maligned artist a coffin, threw it into the ocean of hollywood, waited for him to drown, and got their shit rocked.

okay first off simon's little notes? on the map? adorable. i love how HUMAN simon is through the whole thing, asking names, giving the engine a little pat-pat when it turns back on, UGH i love him protect him get him the fuck OUT of there

the rivalry/hostility between the coi and eden was also really well done. i wasn't sure how much mark was gonna use/lean into that but i LOVED having simon be from eden and there for the filament station disaster--him finding the note from the previous convict? calling him 'brother' when he heard the recording of the note you find in the game???? the pendant he wore on his arm and how it was the thing keeping him TETHERED for better or for worse??????? oh my god it was so fucking good. the way that filament station haunts the narrative, the questions/reveals we get about simon's life, his own ghosts and regrets, the questions about life and death...

the shots. oh my fucking god the shots. those shots in the beginning where the porthole is almost like a halo for simon??? the part where he's begging for the voices over the radio to be real and he moves so his shoulder blocks the indicator light so we can't see if it's on or not??? the dutch angle when the first drop of blood hits his hand to immediately signify something's wrong??? the shot of ava looking through the blood with her damaged eye and it perfectly parallels the massive eye looming out of the blood later in the movie???? the CRACK in the porthole looking like a tree and the pendant from eden cracking in the same way??? again i knew they were gonna be on it but holy FUCK were they on it.

and simon was smart. thank god simon was smart. he drew the map when he didn't have it--which i didn't even realize the map wasn't the complete one you see in game until he started drawing the rest of it!!! he used the binder to hold the lever forwards so he could keep moving. he used the camera as a source of light. he spat on the indicator to make it light up. at no point was i like NO YOU IDIOT and that's what makes horror SCARY.

i also loved how the movie paralleled the game in interesting ways!!! simon goes down once, gets pulled back up, goes down again to get more info, mirroring how there was a massive lore update to the game that included the computer on the ship and all the logs and entries about the worldbuilding. the part where the tether snapped and he got dropped into the weird cave was at the farthest node where normally you get the jumpscare and it's game over. the wibbly wobbly node being the blood portal to the blood dimension where the blood god stares into simon's soul and they recognize each other because we're all just blood--sorry.

and then the science!!! yeah every time you use the camera it's raditation--and GOD that picture in the space ship is terrifying--and so simon's slowly being irradiated over the course of the movie so who knows what's really happening. the hallucinations, the voices, the contaminated human blood. the black box log from the sm8 was HAUNTING. and the blood taking on such a life of its own with rather...disarming consequences, yes that ending sequence will haunt me too.

the whole debate between what's worth life and what isn't. simon so determined to live for so so long and you as a viewer go back and forth with him the whole time and he just wants to live and then the ENDING where he straps the life jacket to the black box and it's bigger than me and THIS POOR MAN. mark's an incredible actor and goddamn does this movie showcase it.