'Exit 8' Review
- Connor Petrey
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
Release Date: 04/10/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Action. Adventure. Horror.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Neon.
The Verdict: A Must-See
Exit 8 is a rarity in a year jam packed with videogame adaptations, where it actually takes the source material and rolls with it. From an atmospheric perspective, this film is pure perfection, the game is perfectly replicated onto the big screen and while the game itself contains no story - the filmmakers took the liberty of crafting their own (to mixed levels of success).
Essentially the game begins the same fashion as the film with a man climbing up a set of stairs in a subway terminal only to get lost in a labyrinth with the only way out by solving a puzzle. Each new hallway contains instructions that instruct if you see an anomaly to turn back and if everything is clear then move forward, fail and you’re sent back to the start of the process. This is exactly the game and for a 90 minute film this does get a bit repetitive, but purposefully so, so we can get the idea of just how insane this would make oneself.
The story follows the lost man, the aforementioned man that went up the steps, it’s implied he’s having a situation with his girlfriend trying to decide whether or not to keep the baby. That’s where the entrapment begins. Every hallway contains one singular man, known as “the walking man”, who we cleverly get their account of all of this at once, with him being an NPC for the lost man, but his own being in his own purgatory with another walking person taking his place. It’s a puzzle game placed onto the screen, with the idea being that maybe they’re in this because they’re struggling with dealing with the burdens of reality.
There also are plenty of twists and (literal) turns along the way that work to an extent, but overcomplicate things. Is this a time loop? An endless maze? Or one’s personal purgatory? It all remains unanswered and very unclear by the time the credits roll and that’s the film's biggest flaw. While remarkable in design, the injected storyline is flimsy at best and the moral is unfortunately difficult to fully comprehend the end result.
Nonetheless, the film achieves what many can’t accomplish, it understands the game. It’s incredibly tense, immensely captivating, and while Exit 8 may not be one to go back to after the initial watch - it’s an immersive experience worth sticking with the horrors of its repetition.
