Exit 8 (2025) (Blu-ray Review)
DIRECTED BY: Genki Kawamura
STARRING: Kazunari Ninomiya, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase
RATED: PG-13/Region: A/1:85/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 1
AVAILABLE FROM Decal Releasing
There are some video game adaptations where you can tell the filmmakers took the source material seriously. Then there’s Exit 8, where you can practically hear the filmmakers saying, “Okay, so the entire game is basically walking down the same hallway and looking for weird shit… how the hell do we make a movie out of this?”
Somehow, they did.
Directed by Genki Kawamura, Exit 8 is based on the indie game of the same name, and I have to give the movie credit for embracing the strange little concept instead of trying to turn it into some generic Hollywood horror movie. The basic premise is still there: you’re trapped in a seemingly endless subway corridor and have to spot anomalies, because apparently getting lost on public transportation wasn’t stressful enough already.
If you’ve played the game, there’s a lot here that will look extremely familiar. The filmmakers recreated the hallway remarkably well, and the whole thing captures that weird, liminal-space feeling that made the game such an effective little nightmare. It’s sterile, repetitive, increasingly unsettling, and just strange enough to make you start questioning whether you’re actually seeing something or losing your damn mind.
One thing I really liked was how the movie starts out in first-person perspective, just like the game. For those opening moments, it genuinely feels like you’re watching somebody play Exit 8 rather than watching a traditional movie. It puts you right into the experience and works surprisingly well.
And honestly, I kind of wish they had stuck with it.
Once the movie moves away from that perspective and starts expanding the story and characters, it becomes a more conventional movie. I understand why they did it, and there are some interesting ideas that come out of expanding the game’s very simple premise, but part of me kept thinking, “You know what would be really cool? If I could just stay inside this guy’s head and watch him slowly lose his shit from his own point of view.”
Because that’s where the movie occasionally gets a little frustrating.
There are stretches where it feels like you’re watching someone play the game who has absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
You know the rules! Look for the anomaly! If you see something weird, turn around! If you don’t see anything weird, keep going!
And yet somehow we’re still walking around like we’re sightseeing at the world’s most depressing subway station.
That actually becomes part of the movie’s charm, though. The repetition, confusion, and increasingly bizarre situations capture the frustration of the game pretty well. If you’ve ever watched someone play a puzzle game while screaming, “NO, YOU IDIOT, TURN AROUND!” at the screen, you’ll understand exactly where I’m coming from.
The weirdness is definitely the movie’s strongest weapon. Some of the anomalies are genuinely creepy, while others are just bizarre enough to make you wonder who thought them up and whether they should be allowed back on the subway.
I also appreciate that Exit 8 doesn’t try to pretend the game was secretly some giant cinematic universe waiting to happen. It takes a very simple concept and expands it just enough to make a feature-length movie out of it, even if that expansion doesn’t always work perfectly.
At times, it feels like the movie is caught between being a faithful game adaptation and wanting to be its own psychological horror movie. When it sticks close to the game’s concept, it’s at its best. When it starts wandering away from that formula, your mileage may vary.
Still, I have to give Kawamura credit. Turning a game where the primary objective is basically “walk down a hallway and don’t be stupid” into a 95-minute movie shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does.
Exit 8 isn’t perfect, and there were definitely moments where I felt like I was watching somebody completely screw up a game I already knew how to play. But I liked the strange atmosphere, I appreciated how faithful it was to the source, and I especially liked that first-person opening.
Honestly, give me the whole damn movie from that perspective next time.
I already know how to play. Just let me walk down the hallway and look for the weird shit myself.
Extras
- Q&A Session with director Genki Kawamura
- The Making of Exit 8 – Featurette
- Original Trailer
- In Japanese, with English and French subtitles
