Exit 8 is equally mind-bending and frustrating
Based on an indie Japanese video game, Exit 8 finds its protagonist, a young man (Kazunari Ninomiya), on his way to a temporary job, only to get caught in a neverending loop of subway station hallways. The only clue the entrapped man (and the audience) has to what’s going on is through an information sign that warns to look for anomalies, and if one is spotted, to turn back immediately. Successfully spotting the anomalies, which can vary from a small change in a poster design to a horrific creature popping through ceiling vents, enables the protagonist to get to the “next level” (i.e., the next exit), which are numbered from 0 to 8. As a concept, this psychological setup is a great opportunity for sight gags, mind-bending conundrums, and visceral thrills. Unfortunately, Exit 8 tries too hard to be super serious and sincere amid its repetitiveness, to the extent that audiences will be begging for a tonal or structural shift (but maybe that’s the point?).
Writer/director Genki Kawamura (A Hundred Flowers) and his production team have created a haunting atmosphere, taking an unassuming subway passageway and imbuing it with a sense of existential dread. Sterile white tiles line the walls, fluorescent lights flood the corridors, and a pulsing musical score haunts every flicker of motion caught by the camera. We are never certain what lays around each corner, or what may be quietly appearing directly in front or behind the characters. Kawamura and cinematographer Keisuke Imamura (April, Come She Will) utilize long steadicam shots which float behind, in front of, and around the characters, allowing the audience to see what the characters see, and, more importantly, see what they don’t.
On a thematic level, Exit 8’s existential maze is a clear metaphor for how one can easily glide through life while avoiding risk and accountability. The movie shoehorns this message into each of its three shifting point-of-view chapters, but neither the characters’ backstories nor their consequential decisions are detailed enough to have an emotional impact. Exit 8 would have been more effective if it had let the audience interpret the psychological trap for themselves, instead of force feeding the message, especially in a few drawn-out scenes within Exit 8’s finale. By that point, the rules of the maze are so abundantly clear, it’s astonishing that characters will spot an obvious anomaly and instead of turning around and continuing through the levels in (likely) a matter of minutes, if not seconds, they stand and watch dumfounded. This lack of decision-making logic is a horror film cliche, and possibly purposeful, but nonetheless frustrating to sit through again and again and again, with no changes to the characters’ responsiveness.
The best way to experience Exit 8 will be in a crowded theater, where the movie’s soundscape is amplified and everyone can feed off the nerves of the audience surrounding them. To watch Exit 8 alone would be to leave too much room for one’s own mental logic, distractions, and potential boredom to seep through, even though the movie is a brisk ninety-five minutes long; the power of a few moments of humor and/or levity would’ve gone a long way. Just because Exit 8 is a one-and-done viewing experience doesn’t mean you should avoid it. Exit 8 is a perfectly fine psychological thriller that fails to live up to its great premise, but the technical achievement of its mesmerizingly atmospheric filmmaking is undeniable.
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Exit 8 opens in theaters on Friday, April 10th.
