I guess it’s time for us to recognise that a video game adaptation no longer has to mean watching filmmakers desperately trying to cram the minuscule plot of a platformer or a beat ’em up into a full length film. Now that people have started to explore the avant-garde end of the medium by latching on to more experimental, indie games, it seems the act of moving a video game to the big screen means that anything goes.
A good example of this was provided by the sizable box office for Markiplier’s Iron Lung, a minimalist sci-fi/horror experience that plonked it’s protagonist into a claustrophobic, cosmic nightmare and invited us to come along for the ride – but now we also have Exit 8, a trip into liminal space that uses merciless repetition as its weapon as we get stuck in a game of spot the difference from Hell. Can this run of confounding video game experiences making a shift to the big screen continue hitting us with existential angst – or is Exit 8 just nothing more than an average day trying to negotiate the Japanese Metro?
A young commuter known only to us as the Lost Man witnesses an altercation on the subway while on his way to his temp job that sees a fellow traveller lose his temper at a mother and her crying baby as he attempts to negotiate the tense crush of rush hour. Like everybody else in the subway car, the Lost Man chooses not to intervene and instead buries himself in the music playing over his earpods. Upon leaving the train, he gets a phone call from his ex-girlfriend who breaks the news that she’s pregnant with his child and has no idea what to do. However, as he’s trying to process this, his signal cuts out and he suddenly realises that he’s the only person standing in an apparently empty corridor.
A short spot of exploration reveals that the corridor is actually some part of infinite loop that seens to have no beginning, no end and no way out despite cheekily pointing the way to Exit 8 and the only other form of life is a blank-faced, unresponsive man whom our lead keeps passing in the hallway ad infinitum. Realising that something deeply messed up has occurred, the Lost Man keeps negotiating the endless pathway seemingly making no progress until he mercifully finally spots some sort of pattern.
As per a sign on the wall, there are rules to this existential prison that he’s found himself in and if he ever wants to finally reach Exit 8, he’s going to have to play a simple game. Each time he passes through the corridor, he has to keep an eye out for “anomalies” – details about his surroundings that are different than before. If everything is the same he simply just passes through and makes from Exit 0 to Exit 1; similarly, if he spots an anomaly he must immediately turn back to keep working his way up until he reaches that fabled Exit 8 and freedom. However, get it wrong and he’ll end up right back at 0. But while some anomalies are small, subtle things like a door handle being in the wrong place, others are hauntingly, disturbingly obvious…
It should be obvious from just reading about the cyclical nature of the plot, that video games based on creepy, indie titles that play more into mind bending surrealist fears aren’t going to be for everyone and if you’re one of those people who’s had their patience steadily eroded by years of phone use might find Exit 8 a steadily frustrating experience. Similarly, there’s also a danger that even if you have played the game, you might get hit by the frustrating syndrome you get when you watch someone else play a game that you’ve already completed and they’re significantly worse at it that you were. However, for those ready to absorb the experience, Exit 8 proves to be something of a rewarding watch as it leeches the unnerving nature of the near-plotless game and grafts a rather human story to its repetitive wanderings.
Rather than finding a way around the fact that the entirety of the film takes place in a single, winding, endless corridor, Exit 8 takes the more experimental route and embraces it fully. Much like Markiplier understood that the power of Iron Lung comes from the fact that it’s lead never leaves a claustrophobic submarine that barely has the luxury of windows, director Genki Kawamura is obviously ready, willing and able to keep pounding the repetitive nature of his scenario in order to fully weaponise the repetitive nature of the game to deliver a deeply unnerving atmosphere. I guess we have Vincenzo Natali’s Cube to thank for this belated string of films that willfully lack the sort of narrative tools you take for granted in other movies – after all, Exit 8 also lacks a traditional beginning or an end and is about watching other people struggle to solve puzzles that could lead to some unspeakable doom. However, while the ordeal is supposed to be dehumanising, it’s the humanity on offer that makes the film more than just an edgy walk through.
While the original game was bereft of lore and plot, we discover that Kazunari Ninomiya’s Lost Man is carrying some emotional baggage due to the news that he potentially could become a father and it’s here that the film finds its emotional core as the blind ambling through corridors may be a pointed metaphor for the repetitive grind of modern life, but it also has a few things to say about parenthood. As Kawamura opens up the lore a little to offer an origin story of the Walking Man who continuously strides in the opposite direction, we find that that Exit 8 is surprisingly about fatherhood, especially when we get the introduction of the Boy. From here, the film mamages to find an emotional core you are truly not expecting beyond the sections where Kawamura steers into more Lovecraftian scares and it manages to give some much needed heart to what could have been too much of a blank slate.
While maybe not mind-numbing terrifying, Exit 8 does a bang up job of creating a genuine and sustained sense of unease as Kawamura uses every trick in the book to keep the same corridors looking visually interesting and chances are, you’ll find yourself hissing at the screen once you spot an anomaly that the characters haven’t. It’s unavoidable that some will struggle to find Exit 8’s wavelength and immediately denounce it as boring, but those people will be missing out on the kind of experimental, video game freak-out that seems to be becoming more and more popular with filmmakers these days.
Stripped back and willfully insular, Exit 8 soon opens up to reveal a surprising amount of depth at its beleaguered main character literally goes round in circles for the whole film. While some may not gel with its strange vibes, citing it as nothing more as a protracted walkthrough, more astute viewers will notice that Exit 8 is an anomaly worth looking for.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 