Exit 8

Turn Back. Turn Back! Turn Back!!! I found myself talking out loud in a packed theater as our witless protagonist, The Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya), wanders the white-tiled corridors of a Tokyo train station. Caught in a living existential nightmare, he traverses the halls in a desperate attempt to find the exit, only to be confronted with a dubious game: spot the anomaly or start again.

While I'm not familiar with the video game it's based on, I caught on quickly to the rules while Lost Man lagged behind. And as a true horror fan, my eyes were quick to dart around the screen looking for trouble, like a bleeding wall, a sign that our frustrating protagonist barely registers as odd. The sound design and lighting add to the very simple set and proceedings before hell breaks loose with some terrifying segments.

It's actually quite an odd and repetitive setup for a narrative movie, and yet somehow engaging. As the turns lead towards darker shenanigans, other players emerge to expand the universe and its laws. Like many horror films, if you follow the rules, you're likely to get out alive. Lost Man's frustration with life keeps him from truly seeing what's in front of him, trapping him in a stagnant loop even before entering this one. It's Ninomiya's emotional performance that keeps us engaged. Credit to the writing, directing, and editing as well. Just as the repetition threatens to lag, something happens. It's perfectly orchestrated.

Liminal horror is clearly the new subgenre to watch. Between Skinamarink (2023), Vivarium (2020), and the upcoming Backrooms (2026), this focus on unsettling, unpopulated spaces that seem to exist just outside of normal time and space is a curious beast. All these movies seem animated by a sentient consciousness conjuring these worlds. Liminal horror is in many ways an offshoot of cosmic horror, one of the most dreadful and quietly unnerving genres. Exit 8 now stands as a shining example of how a movie can be both repetitive and utterly terrifying.