'Exit 8' (dir. Genki Kawamura, 2025) Film Review

Exit 8, dir. Genki Kawamura (95mins) | UK Release Date TBC

CREDIT: Toho, British Film Institute

I've recently gotten into Twitch. It wasn't by choice, but due to the omnipresent algorithm which somehow knew I'd find entertainment in streamer Jenn McAllister's video game livestreams. One of the first of McAllister's videos I came across was her reaction to the recently-viral 'Exit 8', a low-budget Japanese indie that mixed puzzle and horror gameplay to grand effect. As bizarre as it may sound, there's a seemingly universal appeal to watching individuals play video games online. It's a new, Gogglebox-ian style of programming that seems relatively new in the media landscape. Months later, I'd sit through this film and watch it intersect with the art of filmmaking, with Exit 8 turning out to be quite a successful little filmic adaptation.

The challenge of the original game is fairly simple; you're trapped - p.o.v. - in an Escherian underground metro corridor which presents itself as a closed, inescapable loop. You can only progress through the levels of the labyrinth if you're able to detect 'anomalies' present in the repeating, seemingly-identical walkways. Was that poster there last time? What colour was that light before? Successfully noting an 'anomaly' (or lack thereof) allows you passage through the exit (of which there are eight). But if one is present that you fail to notice, you'll be supernaturally returned to the start of the game, risking eternal purgatory within the circuit.

Director Kawamura utilises this p.o.v. lens for the first 10 minutes of the film, turning the cinema seat into a gaming chair and successfully capturing the juddery visual style that so many online games adopt today. It's a fun gimmick, but we're eventually introduced to the visage of our protagonist, here played by Kazunari Ninomiya. He's very competent in the role, which demands from him a lot of capital-A Acting. Joining him in the tunnel maze are actors Yamato Kochi (pictured above, whose 'Walking Man' character is genuinely unnerving), Nana Komatsu (who makes a decent impression as our main character's girlfriend, even if the role's cliché and dated), and an uncredited little boy (his lack of credit is surprising to me given his importance to the overall film, but hey, that's showbiz!).

I reference McAllister at the beginning of the review because I can't stress enough how much watching Exit 8 felt like...well...watching 'Exit 8'. Particularly during the film's opening, this was a cinematic experience which felt uncannily similar to the one I'd had a few months earlier, watching McAllister play the game on Twitch. This was novel for me, and certainly enhanced my initial experience engaging with the flick. I wonder how this film would land for the uninitiated? For those with no prior experience with the material, or no fondness for the video game format?

I pose these questions because there's a lot about this film that doesn't totally make sense. These labyrinthine metro tunnels may seal in our ensemble, but this script is far from watertight. Many times throughout this film we are presented with twists and turns that feel quite random and unexplained. You get the sense that they're perhaps posited as elements of a larger mystery which the film decides to leave obscured, but I didn't find this film builds a world strong enough, or lore intriguing enough, to sustain its ask for our active engagement with these loose threads.

In actuality, I think the strength of Exit 8 lies in the way it allows the viewer to 'play the game' and spot the anomalies alongside its key cast. This isn't something that breaks ground in the horror genre, which often encourages its viewer to keep an eye out for shadows and jump-scares, and demands hyper-vigilance from its audience. And there are some clever moments in this film which warrant respect and kudos.

This isn't a revolutionary film, but it's definitely an enjoyable 12A horror that seems destined to entertain classrooms full of teenagers on the last day of term, or families looking for a silly scare during the so-called spooky season. There's no set release date for Exit 8 yet in the UK, but I do hope it gets picked up by a UK distributor. If it does, this is the kind of satisfying, shallow fright-fest that'll offer good distraction on a rainy day. Ultimately, though, I had just as much (if not more) fun watching someone funny stream the game on Twitch...and if that's the case, then what function does this film serve other than to extend the original IP?

★★★

Written by James Green