Movie Review: EXIT 8

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: April 10th, 2026 / 02:40 AM

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asunuma, Kotone Hanase, Nana Komatsu
Writers: Kentaro Hirase & Genki Kawamura, based on the video game THE EXIT 8 developed by Kotake Create
Director: Genki Kawamura
Distributor: Neon
Release Date: April 10, 2026 (U.S. theatrical)

Based on the hugely popular video game first released in 2023, EXIT 8 is surreal, symbolic and surprisingly immersive. Director Genki Kawamura and his co-screenwriter Kentaro Hinase, along with leading man Kazunari Ninomiya, deserve enormous credit for making something compelling out of challenging material.

It’s generally difficult to make a good movie from a video game, but with EXIT 8, it’s not for the usual reasons. Here, it’s not so much getting past the fact that video game players would prefer to take the reins themselves as what the game play entails.

In EXIT 8, a young man is trying to find the title route from the subway to the street. After consistently being thwarted, he notices a set of instructions on the wall, which inform him that he needs to look closely at his surroundings. If he notices any anomalies, he must turn back at once. If he sees no changes, he should proceed.

The surroundings mainly consist of a wall with seven posters – one aptly advertising an Escher exhibit – another wall with three doors and a fire extinguisher, and a man (Yamato Kochi) who passes our hero without acknowledgement.

With such minimalist rules, the EXIT 8 game is clearly designed for puzzle-solvers and/or those keenly attuned to detail. The movie goes for bigger swings. When there’s an anomaly, we normally notice it at once and, far from being a minor alteration on advertising, it is sometimes downright nightmarish, with at least one sequence that qualifies as flat-out horror.

Although the characters speak Japanese and the principals on both sides of the camera are Japanese, all the subway signage is in Korean, a nod to the game’s origins. For viewers who notice this, it adds another layer of disorientation as to where any of this is taking place. (Between EXIT 8 and February’s GHOST TRAIN, it’s been a few good months for Korean subway horror.)

On the other hand, wandering around lost is often when folks engage in some soul-searching. The EXIT 8 filmmakers use this opportunity to add a subplot for the protagonist that gives the story some metaphorical heft.

Kochi, whose role gives him more to do than first expected, is convincingly alternately preoccupied, angry and terrifying.

Ninomiya is so good at playing every shade of confusion, frustration, self-doubt, remorse, hope and all other emotions the situation calls for that he wins our empathy. As a result, we spend much of EXIT 8 keenly identifying with him, anxious for him to escape rather than waiting with detachment for the next anomaly.

This said, some audience members may still start feeling a little impatient before the climax. Then again, it seems like it would be difficult to avoid that and still be true to the central premise. EXIT 8 takes getting lost in an urban maze and cranks the experience up to eleven. It’s existentially unsettling and occasionally genuinely scary.

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