Commuting Is Liminal Hell In NEON’s New EXIT 8 Trailer

Ahead of its theatrical release on April 10, NEON has unveiled the trailer for Exit 8, the upcoming liminal Japanese horror-thriller based on the 2023 walking simulator game of the same name.

Written and directed by Genki Kawamura (producer on Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster, Makoto Shinkai's Your Name and author of If Cats Disappeared from the World), Exit 8 stars Kazunari Ninomiya (Gantz), Yamato Kochi (Anti-Hero), Nana Komatsu (The World of Kanako), Kotone Hasane (Suzume) and newcomer Naru Asunama.

In Kotake Create's original game, players take on the role of an unknown, unseen protagonist as they travel through a Japanese metro station passageway, trying to spot inaccuracies to reach the exit of the station.

An official synopsis for NEON and Kawamura's adaptation reads:

The story follows a man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway, who sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?

Following its premiere at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Exit 8 received an 8-minute standing ovation from a sold-out crowd of 2,300 viewers.

Exit 8 is a perfect example of the recent trend of ‘liminal horror', horror that focusses on uncanny, abandoned spaces that don't feel like they belong in this world. A24 is getting in on the ground floor of the liminal horror boom with an upcoming adaptation of Kane Parsons' The Backrooms, and other popular examples include the games of Chilla's Art, like The Convenience Store and the recently-announced bizarre fishing game Umigari.

Exit 8 also joins the recent slate of horror video game adaptations that includes Christophe Gans' Return to Silent Hill, Zach Cregger's , Jeremiah Kipp's  and Gary Dauberman's