Creepy subway. Review of the horror film The Exit 8

Film adaptations of video games are a difficult task. Especially when we are not talking about large-scale blockbusters with a branching plot, but about experimental indie projects that are built not even on a story, but on a unique experience. The Japanese game The Exit 8 is just such a case. It is a viral phenomenon that brought an entire subgenre of horror "find the anomaly" to a new level of popularity. Director Genki Kawamura took on an almost impossible task: to turn a short, meditative puzzle into a full-fledged film. The result was interesting. This is an innovative, visually masterful and incredibly exciting film, which, however, could not fully decide what is more important: form or content.

The plot introduces us to an unnamed man (Kazunari Ninomiya) with his own baggage of problems. He finds himself in a sterile, brightly lit underground passage that endlessly loops back on itself. The rules are simple: if there is nothing unusual in the corridor, go forward. If you notice an anomaly, turn back. To get out, you need to successfully complete eight such loops. One mistake and it all starts from scratch.

The film's most valuable achievement is how skillfully it transfers the direct experience of the game to the screen. Kawamura turns a passive viewer into an active participant. From the first minutes, when the hero falls into the trap, you involuntarily begin to scan the screen with him, looking for the slightest changes: has an extra poster appeared on the wall? Is the man walking towards you smiling strangely? Is water flowing from the ceiling? This creates an incredible effect of immersion and tension that you don't often find in cinema. Keisuke Imamura's cinematography, reminiscent of scenes from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, only enhances the feeling of disorientation and claustrophobia in this endless labyrinth. The fear in the film is quiet but constant, like a background.

At the heart of this grueling ordeal is Kazunari Ninomiya's excellent acting. Since much of the film is essentially a one-man show, it is he who carries the emotional weight. And he does a brilliant job of conveying the full range of feelings of his "lost man": from confusion and panic to gradual exhaustion and, ultimately, determination. He keeps the character from spiraling into hysteria; instead, his fear is quiet, internal, which makes him even more believable.

Unlike the game, which was devoid of plot, the screenwriters added an emotional core to the story - the theme of the fear of parenthood and responsibility. The endless cycle in which the hero is stuck becomes a metaphor for his own indecision and panic before the choice that will change his whole life. The anomalies in the corridor cease to be just game elements, but turn into the embodiment of internal fears and uncertainties. This move allows the film to be something more than a simple adaptation, giving it some philosophical depth.

But this is where the film's weakness lies. In its efforts to develop this metaphor, the film eventually loses its laconic sophistication. When other characters appear in the plot, the allegory becomes too obvious, almost pedantic. The mystery and openness to interpretation that were the game's strengths give way to a rather straightforward message about the need to accept responsibility. As a result, the main character never gets enough development beyond the central dilemma, and the emotional stakes don't rise, but rather become simplistic.

Overall, The Exit 8 is a bold and largely successful experiment. It's a rare example of a film adaptation that aims not to retell the plot but to recreate a unique gaming experience, and it succeeds brilliantly. It's a tense and visually inventive film that forces the brain to work at full speed. Even the minimalism of the chosen style does not prevent you from getting aesthetic pleasure while watching.

However, the film's attempt to add narrative weight to the story was not so successful. The film impresses with its concept and atmosphere, but leaves behind the feeling that behind this ingenious puzzle there was not as deep a story as it could have been.