• 9866 Sun, 10 Aug 2025 16:00:00 @ Hoyts Melbourne Central Cinema 10
• 8939 Sat, 16 Aug 2025 18:30:00 @ IMAX Melbourne
• 8959 Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:45:00 @ Cinema Nova 1

Director: Genki Kawamura
Producer: Taichi Itô,Kenji Yamada,Taichi Ueda,Minami Ichikawa,Yoshihiro Furusawa,Genki Kawamura
Screenwriter: Kentaro Hirase,Genki Kawamura
Cinematographer: Keisuke Imamura
Composer: Shouhei Amimori,Yasutaka Nakata
Editor: Sakura Seya
Production Designer: Ryo Sugimoto
Costume Designer: Daisuke Iga
Key Cast: Yamato Kochi,Naru Asanuma,Kazunari Ninomiya,Kotone Hanase,Nana Komatsu

A Tokyo commuter gets trapped in an infinitely looping subway station in this mind-bending adaptation of the hit indie videogame.

An unnamed protagonist steps off a busy Tokyo train into a nondescript subway passage: white-tiled walls, a handful of advertisements and one lone salaryman striding down the corridor. After walking ahead and taking a few corners, the commuter finds himself back where he started. Then he notices a sign with an ominous set of rules: if you find an anomaly, turn back immediately; if you don’t find an anomaly, keep going. The longer he stays, the weirder things get, and his only hope of ever leaving this purgatory is by playing a deadly game of spot the difference.

Adapted from the cult videogame, Exit 8 establishes a distinctive, liminal setting, which production designer Ryo Sugimoto transforms from a generic subway station into an uncanny labyrinth with sinister surprises around every bend. Building on the simple source material, writer/director Genki Kawamura (a producer on Monster, MIFF 2023) contextualises the commuter’s internal world with a tense opening sequence and subsequent interludes that offer insight into his isolation, discontent and fears of fatherhood, adding emotional heft to his Kafkaesque odyssey. Variously evoking The Shining, Run Lola Run (MIFF 1999), Squid Game and Cube, this is a singular cinematic experience viewers won’t want to leave behind.

“The best video game adaptation ever made … a haunting cautionary tale for the emotionally paralysed. It’s a masterpiece of ‘No Exit Horror’: intimate, tragic and impressively human.” – Dread Central