Exit 8 director Genki Kawamura built his 2025 Japanese psychological horror film using a defiantly analog approach: two identical corridors constructed on set, an actor walking one, catching his breath, then walking the second to simulate an endless loop without a single edit. The technique reveals how Kawamura, who previously worked as a producer on films like Weathering with You and Suzume, adapted the indie viral game The Exit 8 into something that feels genuinely unsettling rather than gamified.
Key Takeaways
- Exit 8 director built duplicate corridor sets to film seamless looping shots without digital edits.
- The flood scene was filmed by submerging the entire set in a swimming pool.
- Lead actor Kazunari Ninomiya participated in scriptwriting to ground the game’s abstract horror in emotional parenthood themes.
- The film uses first-person POV, shaky camera, and multiple perspectives to capture the game’s disorientation.
- Metacritic score of 69/100 reflects critical praise for the film’s finesse despite its game-bound structure.
How Exit 8 Director Turned a Game Loop Into Physical Reality
Kawamura’s most striking creative decision was rejecting digital shortcuts. Instead of relying on editing tricks or VFX to create the illusion of an endless corridor, his production team built two identical sets. The actor would walk down the first corridor in a single unbroken take, step off camera, catch his breath, and then walk down the second corridor—which was an exact replica—to resume the shot. This allowed Kawamura to capture genuinely long, uncut takes that convey the protagonist’s mounting dread without the visual language of modern cinema (cuts, transitions, digital loops) breaking the immersion.
For the film’s flood sequence, Kawamura took an even more audacious approach. Rather than filming in a tank or using water effects in post-production, the production team transported the entire set to a swimming pool and submerged it. This practical commitment to physical filmmaking—what Kawamura himself described as working “like being in a circus”—created an authenticity that audiences respond to, even if they cannot consciously identify why.
The Exit 8 source material, a 2023 indie game by Kotake Create, is a first-person walking simulator where players navigate a repeating Japanese metro station passageway, spotting visual anomalies to progress. Translating that mechanic to cinema required solving a narrative problem: how do you make a game’s trial-and-error loop feel like a coherent story? Kawamura’s answer was to anchor the film in the psychological state of its protagonist, The Lost Man (played by Kazunari Ninomiya), a man haunted by guilt over ignoring a woman berated for her crying baby on a subway. When The Lost Man suffers an asthma attack and enters the looping corridor, his desperation becomes the engine of the film rather than the game’s puzzle logic.
Why Casting Kazunari Ninomiya Changed the Film’s DNA
Ninomiya, known for his work in Japanese cinema, brought more than acting to Exit 8. Because of his gaming experience, he was credited with script cooperation, helping Kawamura and co-writer Kentaro Hirase ground the abstract horror in emotional stakes. Ninomiya recognized early that the film needed a “single exit”—a clear emotional and narrative goal—rather than treating the looping corridor as a puzzle box. His involvement from the scriptwriting stage ensured that the endless repetition served the story of a man confronting his own selfishness and fear of fatherhood, not just the mechanics of a game.
This collaborative approach distinguishes Exit 8 from straightforward game adaptations, which often struggle to translate interactive mechanics into linear storytelling. Critics noted that the film remains somewhat beholden to its game structure, with some reviewers arguing that the gamification of action detracts from the emotional parenthood narrative. Yet the film’s Metacritic score of 69/100 reflects critical recognition that Kawamura navigated this tension with considerable finesse, balancing unsettling atmosphere with existential dread.
Practical Effects as a Statement Against Convenience
Kawamura’s insistence on analog filmmaking—building duplicate sets, submerging practical environments, using first-person POV and shaky camera work—stands in contrast to the convenience of digital filmmaking. In an era when most horror films lean heavily on VFX, color grading, and post-production manipulation, Kawamura’s approach feels almost retro. Yet it works precisely because the audience senses the commitment. When an actor walks down a corridor that was actually built twice, and walks it again, the repetition carries a physical weight that no amount of digital looping can replicate.
The film also employs multiple perspectives—the Lost Man, the Walking Man (played by Yamato Kochi), and a third character—to fracture the viewer’s sense of reality. This narrative layering, combined with the practical filmmaking, creates the disorientation that the game conveyed through player agency. In the film, that agency is transferred to the viewer’s inability to trust what they are seeing.
How Exit 8 Compares to Other Game Adaptations
Most video game-to-film adaptations struggle because they try to preserve game mechanics in a medium built on linear narrative. Exit 8 takes a different path: it respects the game’s atmosphere and visual language while subordinating the puzzle logic to character psychology. The Walking Man subplot and the presence of a little boy (played by Naru Asanuma) add narrative threads absent from the game, expanding the scope beyond a single protagonist’s ordeal.
Where many game adaptations fail is in assuming that what works interactively will work cinematically. Exit 8’s critical reception—described as navigating an “unsettling maze with existential dread”—suggests that Kawamura understood the distinction. The film is not a recreation of the game experience; it is a film inspired by the game’s premise and aesthetic.
Why Kawamura’s Second Feature Matters for Horror Cinema
This is Kawamura’s second feature as director, though his eighth as a writer. His previous work as a producer on major anime and live-action films gave him the infrastructure and trust to pursue unconventional techniques. Exit 8 proves that even in an industry obsessed with efficiency and digital shortcuts, there is space for filmmakers willing to build duplicate sets and submerge their props in swimming pools to achieve authenticity.
Was Exit 8 filmed in a real subway station?
No. The film used constructed sets, including two identical corridors built specifically for the looping shots and a set that was transported to a swimming pool for the flood sequence. This practical construction allowed Kawamura precise control over the environment and the ability to film long, uninterrupted takes.
How does the Exit 8 film differ from the video game?
The game is a first-person walking simulator focused on spotting visual anomalies in a repeating metro corridor. The film reframes this as a psychological journey rooted in guilt and the fear of fatherhood, adding multiple characters and narrative layers absent from the game. While critics noted the film remains somewhat beholden to the game’s structure, the emotional stakes distinguish it from a direct adaptation.
What is the Metacritic score for Exit 8?
Exit 8 holds a Metacritic score of 69/100 based on 25 critics, reflecting generally favorable reviews. Critics praised the film’s finesse in balancing the game’s repetitive structure with genuine horror atmosphere, though some felt the gamification occasionally undermined the emotional core.
Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8 demonstrates that practical filmmaking—duplicating sets, submerging props, committing to long uncut takes—can create a visceral horror experience that digital convenience cannot match. In choosing analog over algorithmic, Kawamura made a statement about what cinema can do that games cannot: anchor abstraction in the physical presence of an actor, a corridor, and an audience willing to sit with discomfort. That commitment is why Exit 8 lingers.
Edited by the All Things Geek team.
Source: TechRadar
