Exit 8 is based on a game I’ve never played. It is, however, part of a subgenre of streaming content I’m obsessed with: the anomaly game. I love playing and watching streamers navigate these types of games. They’re deceptively simple: repetitive rooms or levels where the player has to identify the anomalies—horrific, out-of-place manifestations—in order to move on. Within these simple mechanics, deep narratives are often buried.  Like in The Ten Bells, a tragic story of murder and betrayal, Exit 8 adapts a game about a looping train station exit, but the question to be answered, like with all game adaptations, is: how does this narrative fit a movie format?

• Directed by: Genki Kawamura
• Written by: Kotake Create. Kentaro Hirase. Genki Kawamura
• Starring: Kazunari Ninomiya. Yamato Kochi. Naru Asanuma

Feels Like a Game

Right from the start, there are some clever camera tricks to pull the viewer more directly into the game experience. The POV is first-person, like the game. It’s only once the main character, only called the Lost Man, enters the subway tunnels, that it switches to traditional third-person.

Watching the Lost Man navigate the early levels and miss certain anomalies by not doing the most basic gamer thing ever was, in a word, rewarding. When he fails to notice the lights are wrong by simply not looking up, it was fantastic.

With Character Too

Exit 8, the movie, isn’t just about a man navigating supernatural hallways. He has a backstory as well, which plays nicely into all the ways that the tunnels can psychologically torture him. The Lost Man is dealing with his uncertain future. His ex is pregnant, and he cannot decide how to move forward with her as he sees himself as unfit to be a father.

The tunnels prey on this, and before too long, he’s forced to confront these fears, especially when he meets a lost boy. Through flashbacks of what the boy experienced, we see how the tunnels trapped other people, driving them to insanity.

Exit 8 is an effective movie when it comes to tension and worldbuilding. Even though I went into it with no knowledge of the greater lore, the script fully establishes what is happening to these trapped people. And, it does this even without spelling out every detail of what the tunnels are.

Guilt.

We do get some hints, though. Guilt plays a large part of how the anomalies respond to people. The Walking Man, a previous victim, was done in by his guilt over never meeting his son and his desire to fix this. It led to him ignoring the rules and becoming trapped. 

Likewise, the Lost Man has to overcome his guilt and issues with children by actually interacting with the boy. He bonds with him, overcoming the cyclical nature of the tunnels and of life.  

Repetition is a big theme here. Bolero is often played on the soundtrack. The boy offers the Lost Man a hermit crab shell as a good luck token. One of the posters on the wall is Escher’s Ants on a Möbius strip. Most importantly, the movie starts with the cyclical nature of life, riding the train to work and home every day.

The more progress the Lost Man makes, the more the subway tunnels increase the pressure. The anomalies directly relate to things he and the boy feel guilty about. It’s not terribly subtle, but it’s well done, and it speaks to the timeless nature of these tunnels.

Some other moments reveal the non-linear nature of the tunnels, but I don’t really want to spoil too much.  I will say Exit 8, the movie, felt a lot like playing an anomaly game and a whole lot more.

A Love of Anomaly

It’s a great metaphor: move forward towards a bad decision or go back and try again. Finding the specific, minute details that have changed is challenging, frustrating, and horrific all at once,  especially when there is a ticking clock associated with it.  There is something so simple about the design that I never get tired of. Maybe it’s how much player frustration becomes part of the mechanics. Exit 8, the movie acknowledges this, which adds to how tense and real it feels.

Final Thoughts:

Exit 8 is tense and atmospheric, more psychological than anything else. If you’re looking for a ton of jump scares, this will probably feel slow for you. It was exactly what I was in the mood for this morning, though, and I highly recommend it.