“Exit 8” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35222590/) is based on a Japanese online game that quickly gained popularity for its simple yet eerie concept. Set in a underground passage, the player must carefully observe subtle changes in the environment and decide whether to keep going or turn back. If you find an anomaly, you move back. If there is no anomaly, you move on. If you succeed, you get one step closer to Exit 8. If you make a mistake, you are sent back to Exit 0. The game became especially popular after being featured by Japanese YouTuber Hikakin, whose large audience helped introduce it to a much wider public.
By all accounts, a film adaptation of Exit 8 might have ended up as a mediocre B-movie or even a complete failure, by either sticking too closely to the original concept or straying too far from it. However, director Genki Kawamura executed the adaptation extremely well. The film takes place almost entirely in one location—a short subway hallway—with only a handful of actors, including Kazunari Ninomiya of the idol group Arashi.
The movie is now showing in major theaters in New York City and is also available to stream for a fee.
