Exit 8 – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 35 minutes, Director – Genki Kawamura

A man (Kazunari Ninomiya) finds himself trapped in a cycle of almost identical subway corridors, having to spot anomalies in order to get out.

It feels cheap to refer to an enjoyable single-location indie flick as having a gimmick. I’ve long-enjoyed low-budget films that pull off a clever narrative concept with what little money they have – think of genre titles such as Cube, Buried or the $7,000-budgeted Primer. Exit 8 slots right in amongst those as we spend time in a set of almost identical subway corridors, following Kazunari Ninomiya’s Lost Man as he tries to escape.

He’s told by a sign in the opening stages to continue if there are no anomalies, and turn back if there are. Each successful corridor brings him one step closer to exit 8, each failed one sends him back to level 0. While some changes are a poster or wording on a sign, others involve blood dripping from the ceiling or uneasy interactions with a character credited as Walking Man (Yamato Kochi).

Co-writer (alongside Kentaro Hirase) and director Genki Kawamura, adapting Kotake Create’s 2023 game The Exit 8, has stated that with the film he wanted to focus less on supernatural horror as a repetitive, boring lifestyle can be just as terrifying. There may not quite be terror in Exit 8, although it best fits in to the horror genre, but certainly eerie moments and a solid amount of tension in the wake of The Lost Man’s fear he may never escape – especially with the more difficult to notice changes.

We’re not entirely playing on, the film’s not asking us to. The focus is on the fear at the centre of the film, and the ways in which the corridors repeat and play with those travelling through it – we see perspectives of others who have been caught part way through. It’s here that things don’t quite get repetitive, events are largely well-contained with enough engagement in the situation to stretch to just over 90-minutes, but certainly show signs of slightly losing steam.

Additions are made without feeling like grabbing for an idea to keep things going, they fit in and work for the narrative at hand. In fact, here such points seem to help things along and hold engagement in the characters and the growing tiredness they feel at the sight of shining white walls, each reflecting the light from each other and above. The setting is well captured and used with each corner turned, level advanced or restarted – with each step successfully avoiding the feeling of a video game declaring ‘level up!’ or otherwise.

What we have here is a solid, occasionally tense cycle that leans into that factor without feeling numbly repetitive. Things might show signs of steam being lost around the halfway point as we shift perspectives, but there’s still plenty to like in the low-budget genre fare on display. One that utilises what it has with likable effect and avoiding feeling gimmicky.

A likable low-budget horror that leans into its repetition without feeling boringly so. Utilising its ideas and bringing in additions that don’t feel like overkill, there’s solid tension occasionally cropping up to help see the central character’s panic through.