Genki Kawamura, a man who apparently never sleeps given his résumé as a bestselling author, film-maker, script writer, producer, and lifelong gamer, has adapted the Japanese horror game *Exit 8* into a film now in theaters. The game, created by a lone Kyoto coder operating under the name Kotake Create, traps players in an endlessly looping Tokyo subway station. Kawamura says he was “captivated by its game design and the beauty of its visuals,” but also noticed that streamers each created their own stories from the same simple premise. “It felt like a device that could reveal something fundamental about human nature,” he muses, which is one way to describe wandering aimlessly past the same posters and silent commuters.
The game’s concept is brutally simple: you’re stuck in a narrow, brightly lit subway corridor, passing the same posters, the same silent commuter, the same locked doors on repeat. To escape, you must spot anomalies - like a poster’s eyes following you or the commuter suddenly smiling - and double back. Complete eight runs without missing an anomaly, and you can leave through the titular Exit 8. There’s no story, no reason, just pure existential dread. The mystery, apparently, is the whole point.