While movies like Five Nights at Freddy’s and the Super Mario movies tend to fall short with critics, as they often prioritize fan service over creating a competent movie, Exit 8 has emerged as one of the highest-rated video game adaptations to date. Directed by Genki Kawamura, a renowned author and producer responsible for a plethora of anime hits over the years, his adaptation of the seminal Indie horror game has secured a roaring 94% on the Tomatometer (as of April 10).
The game in question, a solo effort from Kotake Create, revolves around an extremely simple premise, which tasks the player with finding the right exit from a looping platform. And in order to escape, players need to ensure they turn around if they spot an anomaly on eight occasions without fail. Interestingly, this simple structure allowed the director to incorporate his own narrative, inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, Twitch livestreams, etc.
MovieExit 8IMDb (as of April 10)6.4/10Tomatometer | Popcornmeter (as of April 10)94% | NABox Office (as of April 10)$39.2 million
Exit 8 Director Blurs the Line Between Movies and Games
Instead of downplaying one element, Kawamura wanted both the player’s and the audience’s perspectives to coexist within the adaptation. Considering the game itself offers no explanation of who the character in question is or how he ended up in a physiques-defying maze, the director was adamant about blurring the lines between what both mediums represent (via Polygon).
I go back to a conference talk session I had with Nintendo’s Miyamoto Shigeru. He told me that really great games, it’s obvious that the player is having a lot of fun — but truly great games, the people watching the player and the screen also need to have a lot of fun. I thought, Well, what’s the audience going to go through for my film? At times, I wanted to place the audience into the shoes of the player, but at other times, I placed the audience in the perspective of someone perhaps viewing a Twitch livestream.
He also drew parallels between the corridor and The Shining‘s lodge, stressing that, like the Overlook Hotel, which becomes its own malevolent entity in both the Stanley Kubrick adaptation and the novel, the corridor began to take on a will of its own (via The Wrap).
Exit 8 Director Wanted to Adapt Another Popular Game
A still from Backrooms | Credit: A24
Having delivered an impeccable video game adaptation that stands on its own, fans will hope this won’t be Kawamura’s last foray into the realm of bringing games to the silver screen.
Interestingly, the director, who is also working on a novelization of the movie that will further expand on the characters’ background, was interested in the prospect of helming a Backrooms movie. However, with Kane Parsons helming the feature-length adaptation for A24, Kawamura is excited to see how this unfolds. In the same interview with Polygon, he said:
I would’ve loved to have done Backrooms. But someone else already had that idea. So I’m looking forward to how they translate that into a movie.”
Given how his adaptation of this seminal Indie horror turned out, which raked in over $39 million internationally ahead of its US release (via Box Office Mojo as of April 11, 2026), it’s safe to say Kawamura would’ve been an ideal fit for a Backrooms movie.
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Exit 8 is currently playing in theaters (USA).
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
