Whereas most video-game films fail in attempting to translate lively sport mechanics to the passive expertise of movie-watching, Exit 8 thrives by really making viewers really feel as if they’re part of the motion. Director Genki Kawamura’s movie is a frighteningly immersive expertise that cleverly makes use of repetition to create claustrophobic and cloying pressure. It’s this invitation to participation that retains the audiences spooked and invested, even when the movie’s narrative forays into melodrama threaten to launch the mounting stress.
Exit 8
3.5
/5
- Launch Date
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August 29, 2025
- Runtime
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95 Minutes
- Director
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Genki Kawamura
- Writers
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Genki Kawamura, Kentaro Hirase
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Kazunari Ninomiya
The Misplaced Man
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Yamato Kochi
The Strolling Man
In its opening moments, Exit 8 is so mesmerizing and propulsive, it seems like we’re using a curler coaster. It begins with an virtually eight-minute opening sequence shot totally within the first individual. We see every little thing via the vantage level of “The Misplaced Man” (Kazunari Ninomiya), who’s on a crowded prepare attempting to thoughts his personal enterprise. The digital camera turns when he notices an anomaly that’s disturbing his peace: a crying child, adopted by an irritated man who yells at stated child and its mom. Cleverly, Kawamura and cinematographer Keisuke Imamura use the digital camera to bolster the insularity of this man’s perspective; because the minutes tick by, the point of view stays mounted as he stares out into the darkness of the subway, even because the sounds round him improve in quantity. From the beginning, Kawamura reveals us that this “Misplaced Man” is somebody who thinks avoidance will drown out the noise of obligation.
As the person exits the prepare, he will get a name from his ex-girlfriend (Nana Komatsu), who tells him she’s pregnant and is not sure about whether or not she needs to maintain the newborn. Feeling dizzy at each the revelation — and that he’s nonetheless underground — the person rushes to search out an exit, solely to understand that he is trapped. Each time he turns the nook, he’s confronted with the identical sights: porcelain hallways, colourful indicators, vents, and most disturbingly, a wierd man (Yamato Kôchi, impressively crafting an otherworldly smile that’s pure nightmare gasoline) who nonchalantly walks in direction of him however by no means interacts with him. Getting more and more paranoid, “The Misplaced Man” reads textual content on the wall that tells him how he can escape from this loop: as he walks, if he spots any anomalies, he has to right away flip round and stroll the opposite route. If there’s nothing totally different about his path, he can preserve going ahead. If he completes this course of eight occasions, he can lastly escape, but when he turns round when there isn’t an anomaly, he has to start out over at Exit 1.
As soon as these fundamental parameters are established, Kawamura’s movie kicks into excessive gear. The enjoyable in these scenes comes from feeling like we, too, are misplaced, attempting to identify the adjustments in unchanging surroundings. Sakura Seya’s enhancing is price highlighting, as a result of whereas scenes are stitched collectively to position viewers within the man’s headspace, there’s a playfulness within the perspective as properly. The digital camera will usually swap from the again of the person’s head to face him straight, and because the viewers, we will see looming risks which are shambling in direction of him; it places viewers within the omniscient perspective of with the ability to see the terrors, whereas being unable to cease them.
Even when we see the identical photos repeatedly, we by no means really feel comfortable, as a result of the potential of an anomaly signifies that the innocuous can shift to lethal at a ground exit’s discover. For instance, each time the “strolling man” makes his loop and passes by Ninomiya’s character, we wait breathlessly to see if the person will lash out to assault our protagonist. We in all probability see Kôchi’s man loop round Ninomiya’s weathered protagonist upwards of fifteen occasions, and every is crammed with dread.
It might have been tempting for composer Shouhei Amimori and Yasutaka Nakata’s rating to over-announce its presence, nevertheless it’s additionally scary in its repetition. There is a specific sound that performs each time a nook is rounded, and this reiteration feels terrifying. Like Ninomiya’s wanderer, it’s straightforward to go mad attempting to search for anomalies the place there are none, and the rating is only one a part of the depraved puzzle Kawamura’s crafted to drive viewers delirious.
It’s a enjoyable train in type, however there’s a shorter, madcap model of this movie that will be excellent. Because it stands even at simply over ninety minutes, the movie sags when it tries to interrupt free from its conceit and supply backstory for the misplaced man, the strolling man, and one other character, “the boy” (Kotone Hanase). You may really feel the air seep from the tires every time the angle shifts over to share some new character revelation in regards to the core trio. It’s the equal of taking part in a online game and simply on the top of a boss battle or thrilling quest, and then you definitely get interrupted by a minimize scene that derails the thrill of the second. Fortunately, these moments are few and much between, making certain that each time Exit 8 stays mounted on its circuitous terrors, it stays an unmissable, enveloping nightmare price replaying many occasions over.
Exit 8 was reviewed on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant. Distributed by NEON, its North American launch is TBD.