Movies
‘Exit 8’ Live-Action Adaptation of Liminal, Infinite Looping Horror Game on the Way from Toho
KOTAKE CREATE’s 2023 walking simulator, The Exit 8, traps players in an infinite underground loop, mining psychological scares from liminal spaces. A live-action film adaptation is on the way from Toho Co., Ltd.
Watch the eerie announcement video below, which teases the endless loops and promises a 2025 release in Japan and looks almost identical to the game.
Exit 8 follows “A man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway on a frustrating mission to get out.”
The video game’s synopsis gives only slightly more details: “You are trapped in an endless underground passageway. Observe your surroundings carefully to reach ‘The Exit 8’. Don’t overlook any anomalies. If you find anomalies, turn back immediately. If you don’t find anomalies, do not turn back. To go out from Exit 8.”
Japanese filmmaker Genki Kawamura (Monster, Suzume) writes, produces, and directs Exit 8.
Toho shared an official statement from KOTAKE CREATE about the upcoming adaptation: “‘Exit 8’ will be made into a live-action movie! I was surprised and grateful because I never expected that the game would be released at the end of November 2023 and then a movie would be announced about a year later. When I heard about the movie, I wondered how they would turn a game without a story into a movie, but I think it has turned out to be an interesting movie without destroying the world view and atmosphere of ‘Exit 8’! I also had the opportunity to visit the filming location, and it was really amazing to see the underground passage and the old man right in front of me! I hope you will look forward to it! I am also looking forward to the release!”
As for a stateside release, Exit 8 heads to the European Film Market next week to launch sales, Deadline reports.
While we wait for additional news on this adaptation, The Exit 8 is available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam. The hit video game has been downloaded over 1.4 million times.
Two things that have proven to be pretty dependable at the box office in recent years are horror movies and Christopher Nolan movies. With Nolan’s The Odyssey absolutely dominating the box office this past weekend, many fans of Nolan’s work have been left hungry for a Nolan-directed horror movie. After all, The Odyssey does whet the appetite for Nolan nightmare fuel.
Christopher Nolan has brushed up against the horror genre in the past with 2002 thriller Insomnia, but does he have any interest in someday making a full-on horror movie?
Nolan tells the Empire Podcast in a new chat, “I’ve always been interested in doing a horror film.”
“But horror is most successful when the conceptual framework of whatever the story is is just so undeniable. I think there are very few really great horror movies,” Nolan continues.
So why hasn’t Christopher Nolan directed a horror movie yet?
He explains to Empire, “I’ve never clicked with a particular idea or concept that worked for me. I love the genre. Of all genres, it’s the most visceral. Where the direct response to the audience is the most important. That is to say, you’re trying to make people literally feel something in their bones about what’s going on on-screen.”
Nolan calls horror “a genre in which experimentation is demanded.” He explains, “I go to see a lot of horror films with my kids these days, and you’ll see things in the first half an hour, 45 minutes of any horror film that you’d never see in another genre. Risks that are taken. Dangerous approaches to things. Admittedly, a lot of movies can’t sustain that to the end. But in the horror genre, that kind of innovation is not just respected – it’s really demanded.”
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
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