Based on an atmospheric video game about a man stuck in a subway station who must notice “anomalies,” Exit 8 is a tightly wound horror thriller that neatly transforms a simple puzzle game into an elaborate metaphor about taking responsibility and moving on in life.
The film opens with a gamelike sequence shot in a first-person perspective on a crowded subway train in which our hero ignores the world around him while staring at his phone, just like everyone else. He witnesses a man berate a woman with a baby, then finds himself trapped in a purgatorial puzzle space, where he suddenly has to take note of every tiny detail of his surroundings and also rescue a little boy who is trapped with him.
The movie could be taken as an anti-screens metaphor designed to demonstrate the way phones insulate us from the wider world. But it can just as easily be read as a plea for young men to engage with the people around them, to take responsibility not only for their own actions but for the success of the next generation. It’s a movie about clawing back individual agency in a world that makes it too easy just to go along for the ride.
