EXIT 8 (aka 8-BAN DEGUCHI, 2026)

New streaming on Shudder from NEON!
Directed by Genki Kawamura.
Written by Kotake Create, Kentaro Hirase, Genki Kawamura.
Check out the trailer here!

While on a subway train on the way home, an unnamed man (Kazunari Ninomiya) gets a call from his girlfriend letting him know she is pregnant and at the hospital. Before he can hear what she was planning on doing with the baby, the man goes into a tunnel and loses the signal. But the man hasn’t been paying attention to his surroundings, and he soon finds himself lost in a loop of never-ending hallways. To escape this maze, the man must pay attention to the subtle differences and inconsistencies in the seemingly identical hallways to find the way to his exit, EXIT 8.

EXIT 8 is an amazing achievement in surreal and macabre filmmaking. The film is very much like the more recent IT ENDS and BACKROOMS, but especially EL INCIDENTE, where a group of people find themselves in a never-ending spiral of repetition where the only escape comes from an inner realization. So, while the concept is not new, the film is something you don’t want to miss, especially if you like that kind of existential dread-filled movie. It seems the trend of being trapped in an existence out of their own control. Maybe this stems from the realization that many aspects of our lives are being manipulated by forces we are only barely aware of. The fact that this concept has been the central theme of quite a few recent films means that something of this sort is in the air and is a powerful subject to frame a film around. EXIT 8 is one of the best of them.

Through some excellent acting from Kazunari Ninomiya as the unnamed lead, we experience this lonely and desperate trek through these tunnels from a personal level. The actor is likable, even though he is established as kind of a twat by the way he treats his girlfriend with her news at first. But like a spider trying to climb the wall of your shower only to hit a wet patch and fall to the bottom, the plot of EXIT 8 functions as the lead attempts to notice differences in the pathways to make it to the next level closer to Exit 8. My investment was concentrated on the man’s plight, as the film is set up like a complicated video game with progressively challenging levels. The structure of EXIT 8 lends itself to that rush of endorphins as we celebrate when the lead gets to the next level and we pound our fists when he slides all the way back down to Exit 1 again when he makes a mistake. It’s the type of addictive storytelling that appeals to the modern mind raised by video games.

EXIT 8 is a horror movie, so expect some macabre imagery. Some are more shocking than others, like the rats with facial features schmelded to their hides. I’m not exactly sure why these rats exist in the story, but they are creepy, nevertheless. But this is a movie that fills you with dread that the lead is never going to get out of this labyrinth alive more than monsters and gore.

The ending of EXIT 8 will frustrate some and feel like it hits the nail on the head to others. It doesn’t outright give you the outcome of the lead’s fate, but there are hints and depending on your outlook on life, it can be taken as either bright or bleak. Being the glass half empty guy that I am, I chose bleak. But I love it that this film leaves it up to you to decide. Others won’t like that kind of freedom of interpretation. But despite all of that, I feel the level of dread and feeling of surreal nightmare is palpable from almost the very beginning of EXIT 8. It’s like the best of the TWILIGHT ZONE episodes that makes you think and interpret the horror yourself without spelling it all out for you. But you feel it’s undeniable power from the very beginning.