Exit 8, a live-action horror film adaptation of the anomaly-spotting indie recreation of the identical identify, opened at film theaters in Japan on August 29. Regardless of having fun with a worthwhile opening weekend, the Japanese movie has attracted some controversy in its residence nation over a scene that depicts a tsunami, in addition to the manufacturing firm’s delay in issuing an official warning about this probably upsetting content material.
Initially launched on Steam in November 2023, The Exit 8 is a first-person puzzle recreation set in looping passageways of a Japanese subway station. Beginning by the signal for Exit 0, gamers should attain the titular Exit 8 by looking for anomalies – in the event that they see one thing unusual they have to flip again. If all the pieces appears regular, they have to maintain strolling straight forward. Make the proper alternative, and the quantity on the exit signal goes up by one. Make the fallacious alternative, and also you go all the best way again to zero. With its creepy environment and occasional jump-scares, the sport shortly shot up in gross sales and gained widespread recognition with streamers. It has since been ported to a number of platforms and even has a VR model.
The film Exit 8 makes use of the long-lasting parts of the sport to current a psychological horror. Kazunari Ninomiya performs the primary character, an asthmatic unnamed man caught within the each day grind of commuting to work on the subway who’s struggling to come back to phrases with turning into a father. Like within the recreation, Ninomiya’s character will get trapped within the looping subway passages and should efficiently spot anomalies to succeed in Exit 8. The film additionally touches on themes like bystander apathy, dissociation from actuality, and the way smartphones could make us lose monitor of our environment.
The movie has an uneasy environment and is nearly completely set inside the claustrophobic bounds of the subway station. The subway passages evoke the sport, proper right down to the wandering salaryman NPC, posters, and the overly shiny white, tiled partitions. A few of the anomalies are just like these within the recreation, whereas others are distinctive to the film (certainly one of which can probably be appreciated by Parasite Eve followers).
On September 1, the film’s official X account posted a content material warning to potential viewers about “sure scenes that will evoke traumatic recollections of pure disasters, like tsunamis.” This put up led to an outpouring of assorted responses. Though some customers thanked the manufacturing firm for the heads-up, others criticized the timing of the warning, which got here three days after the movie hit theaters. “Should not this have been issued on opening day?” and “I wouldn’t have gone to see it had I identified,” are among the many important person feedback reported on by Japanese information shops like Yahoo! Japan/J-CAST.
In the meantime, some commenters who hadn’t seen the movie but mused about whether or not the depiction might actually be traumatic sufficient to warrant such a warning, contemplating the “delicate” rising water that seems within the recreation, plus the movie’s G score (appropriate for all) from Japanese movie classification board Eirin.
The Exit 8 recreation does function an anomaly the place a crimson tide of blood follows the participant (in a attainable homage to The Shining). Nonetheless, on X, film viewers rushed to guarantee those who the movie’s scene could be very completely different and far more real looking. “I feel people who find themselves aware of the The Exit 8 recreation usually tend to let their guard down,” stated one person, including that the film’s scenes are “about 500 occasions extra ‘real-life tsunami’ than the sport’s.” Others urged these with expertise of disasters just like the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami (which killed virtually 20,000 folks) to chorus from seeing the movie. With the film getting a “appropriate for all” score, some customers questioned if Eirin had accomplished its job correctly.
Having seen the Exit 8 film, I can verify that the tsunami scene is extra real looking and extended than the sport’s. The torrent of water that floods the subway corridors shouldn’t be blood-red however brown with mud, and shortly submerges a younger boy. There are first-person pictures from the point of view of the primary character, conveying his panic as he struggles to get to the floor of the robust waters. There’s additionally an intense scene wherein the primary character tries to save lots of the boy by getting him on high of the ceiling’s exit signal, adopted by a chronic shot of the boy curled up fetus-like and surrounded by particles.
The Exit 8 film has been closely marketed in its residence nation, and had the highest-grossing opening weekend for a dwell action-movie in Japan to this point this 12 months (supply: Anime Information Community). The primary actor Kazunari Ninomiya has a powerful fan following courting again to when he was a member of the hit boyband Arashi. These elements imply {that a} bigger viewers, together with these unfamiliar with The Exit 8’s supply materials, are probably to take a look at the film, and has amplified the criticism surrounding the tsunami scene.
Exit 8 is presently exhibiting at film theaters in Japan. It has already been screened at some worldwide movie festivals together with Cannes, with additional, staggered releases deliberate in varied nations. Neon acquired North American rights to Exit 8 in August, and plans a theatrical launch in early 2026.
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Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance author who beforehand served as editor, contributor and translator for the sport information website Automaton West. She has additionally written about Japanese tradition and films for varied publications.