TIFF 2025: ‘Exit 8’ Is Liminal Videogame Horror at its Best

We just got that trailer for the film adaption of Mario Galaxy and my brain is rattling around ideas of how this animated cutie will turn that game into a cinematic narrative. I wondered something similar but different when it came to Five Nights at Freddy’s and I was back in the fray when considering how another relatively simple game would be adapted for the screen, Exit 8.

Writers and director, Genki Kawamura and Kentaro Hirase, made magic out of a simple game premise by not getting too caught up in the potentially infinite loop. For the uninitiated, the game is simple: make your way through the subway exit. If you spot an anomaly, turn around, if you don’t, keep going. Complete this eight times, and waltz out Exit 8. For the screen, player one (Kazunari Ninomiya) is an aimless man commuting in the subway whose life becomes slightly more complicated when he learns his ex-girlfriend is pregnant. Rushing to meet her at the hospital to consider what to do next, he is met with an unending loop of hallways populated by no one but a spooky walking man. Soon picking up on the rules of the trap he finds himself in, the lost man tries all of his tricks to escape the game’s routine since life has given him something to run to. But just when the endless loop becomes repetitive, a new player enters the game in time to change up the stakes we thought we knew and explain the true grim possibilities for a player who can’t follow the rules.

Exit 8 is liminal horror and it weaponizes that to stellar and terrifying affect. Never has a hallway felt both so suffocating and full of opportunity than with a simple numbered poster counting upwards or back to zero. The filmmakers used twin hallway sets to create the endless loop, and limited cuts allow the viewer to feel the punishment of the infinite hallway tiles. A long cut that passes perspective into a flashback is brilliant and winks to an audience that’s by now fully aware that this movie based on a simple game is anything but.

Heart and stakes come by way of the main player’s journey to confidence and parenthood, so the movie throws human contact at him in time to keep things interesting. Not all of it works, and some flashes feel out-of-place and raise continuity and supernatural questions. Ultimately, however, the story chucking new battles at the player is what makes the entire thing feel so dynamic. Just when you’re ready to groan at the idea of seeing that large “0” again, the movie changes the game to keep everything engaging beyond just watching someone blow it.

The aforementioned set design is also played like a game for an eagle-eyed audience. The creative team described being inspired by watching YouTube videos of gameplay and that’s evident in the movie’s structure. Moments where the audience is a step ahead of the players are rewarding, funny, and bring an added sense of glee to such a harshly lit tale.

Exit 8 captures the nightmarish experience of playing such a frustrating game, the kind that seems so simple until you’re forced to attempt it on your own. Instead of digging into expanded story canon, it opts to exploit the liminal terror of the source material, and so beautifully adds beats and twists to keep the entire thing exciting and watchable. By training us to look into the background, the movie ensures the audience — like a player — can’t afford to look away, and in a year full of distractions, that’s such a magical thing.

Exit 8 played the Toronto International Film Festival and is expected from Neon and Elevation Pictures sometime in 2026