Why Exit 8 might be the deepest – and most unsettling – horror film of the year

An adaptation of a hit global video game that had its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival last May has finally come to UK cinemas – and it may just be the deepest horror film of 2026.

As true aficionados of the genre know, horror contains multitudes and can span many other types of movie category too, be that drama, comedy or even romance.

But Exit 8, from director and co-writer Genki Kawamura and based on Kotake Create’s 2023 walking simulator game of the same name, contains layers and meaning impressive even compared to the usual multi-pronged horror films.

Already a success in its native Japan, the premise of the movie seems simple enough – if unnerving – as we follow the Lost Man (Letters from Iwo Jima’s Kazunari Ninomiya), trapped in an endless sterile subway passage and hunting for Exit 8.

But there’s a golden rule that cannot be broken: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If he discovers an anomaly, he must turn back immediately. If he doesn’t, he can carry on. But the tiniest slip-up will undo all his progress and send him back to Exit 0.

For Kawamura, the titular Exit 8 sign held an all-powerful meaning, even switching the movie out of its initial ‘gameplay vibe’ of subjective camerawork, after we arrive in the corridor for the first time when the Lost Man gets off his train.

‘The Exit 8 signage is like a divine entity, kind of like Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey,’ the director explained to Metro during an interview at Cannes.

‘Suddenly the human is seen by God, and that’s why it changes to objective camera cinematography.’

But it goes deeper than that, as he was also inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy and saw the loop of the subway as the equivalent to purgatory, where a person must confront their sins.

‘So your guilt turns inside out, and it manifests as an anomaly – and it also attacks you. And that’s a slightly video game and animation type of experience, [but] I think I was able to bring more artistic and literary elements to it.’

That is just the beginning of the tense Exit 8’s hidden meanings however, as every anomaly – some of which are as creepy as a flood of red water, deformed rodents and banging doors – link up to larger points made in the film.

One of the anomalies the Lost Man will face is even hinted at from his browsing history on his phone.

‘Human beings, unfortunately, can be very brutal. On social media we encounter [unpleasant] things, but we go, “Oh, that’s gross,” and then we just click away and pretend we haven’t seen it,’ Kawamura points out, of how checked out our protagonist is during his initial subway journey.

‘Same with the man we see raising his voice towards the mother and the child. You know what’s happening, but you pretend that you haven’t seen it. So those human qualities are kind of amped up more grotesquely – [and that] is what is attacking the protagonist as an anomaly.’

Kawamura, who was also behind Netflix show The Makana and animated hits Your Name and Suzume, was keen to touch on ‘the sin of indifference’ in Exit 8, which he stresses is ‘a very contemporary’ one.

‘It’s our biggest sin right now, whoever are political leaders are, whether there’s conflict in other countries, and even if there’s a man that’s raising their voice or animals are treated very cruelly.’

The filmmaker also reckons our daily lives, and certainly ones that involve the same commute to work, can feel like a loop at times, just as with Exit’s 8 trap.

‘But I think there’s actually a lot of anomalies happening every day, so then the question becomes whether you can catch that? And if you do, that could lead to huge change, so that’s one of the themes I wanted to include.’

Another key character in the movie is the Walking Man (Yamato Kochi), an NPC mob (non-player character mobile object) our protagonist encounters.

On the tube you see so many people looking at their smartphones. They look like NPC characters in a game

‘When you go on the tube, you see so many people looking at their smartphones. They look like NPC characters to me in a game and I feel like I don’t want to be one of them!’ Kawamura insists, sharing how it impacted his development of the part because NPCs ‘are people as well’.

His inspirations for both Exit 8 and the defence of horror as a far more complex and nuanced genre than some assume include Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Japanese 16th-century fantasy Ugetsu by Kenji Mizoguchi; they all ‘touch on the loss of paternal love’, as this film does.

Kawamura also reveals that he concerned his crew when first giving them the screenplay as it only consisted of 15 scenes and minimal dialogue, joking: ‘I would like to say to you that everything was calculated, but that would be a lie!’

‘On the first day of filming, I had everybody gather and I said, “I think all of you probably are a little worried that they can’t see what the film is going to be.” But I told them, “Don’t worry, because I don’t know either!”’ he laughs.

But his vision was to build the film on set and during the shooting and editing processes, inviting discussion, comparing it to the modular and minimal approach that Japanese brand Muji takes with the displays in its stores.

‘I feel the way we made the film, if that were unique, I thought the film itself will become unique.’

And of course, you’ll never see your morning tube commute in the same way again.

Exit 8 is in UK and Irish cinemas now.

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