EXCLUSIVE: Exit 8 director on how he turned a video game into a cinematic nightmare

Exit 8 is a liminal horror film directed and co-written by Genki Kawamura and is being screened by indie distributor NEON.

The film adapts the indie walking simulator The Exit 8 by Kotake Create and follows a man trapped in a repeating Tokyo subway tunnel.

Production used two identical physical corridors and practical, analog methods to achieve single-cut looping shots instead of CG.

The filmmaker added a fatherhood arc to the protagonist and used shifting character viewpoints to keep the repeating setting engaging.