NEON has officially set a release date for Exit 8, with the Japanese horror video game adaptation hitting U.S. theaters on April 10.
Written and directed by Genki Kawamura (producer on Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster, Makoto Shinkai's Your Name and author of If Cats Disappeared from the World), Exit 8 stars Kazunari Ninomiya (Gantz) and Nana Komatsu (The World of Kanako).
The pic is an adaptation of liminal walking simulator The Exit 8 from Kotake Create. In the 2023 indie game, players take on the role of an unknown, unseen protagonist as they travel through a Japanese metro station passageway, trying to spot inaccuracies to reach the exit of the station. Rather than relying on jumpscares, players must keep their wits about them in the face of unravelling psychological oddities.
An official synopsis for NEON and Kawamura's adaptation reads:
The story follows a man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway, who sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?
Following its premiere at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Exit 8 received an 8-minute standing ovation from a sold-out crowd of 2,300 viewers.
Video game adaptations are exceedingly tricky to get right (just look at the cold audience and critic reaction to Christophe Gans' Return to Silent Hill released earlier this year), but we consider Exit 8 one of the best examples of how a director can get it right. With further video game adaptations on the horizon like Zach Cregger's Resident Evil, Jeremiah Kipp's The Mortuary Assistant and Gary Dauberman's The Medium, let's hope Exit 8 signals a fresh start for the much maligned subgenre.
For more on Exit 8, keep your eyes on FANGORIA, and for more, here's all the video games we're excited for still to come this year.
