Cert - 15, Run-time - 1 hour 35 minutes

Director - Genki Kawamura

A MAN (Kazunari Ninomiya) finds himself trapped in a cycle of almost identical subway corridors, having to spot anomalies in order to get out.

It feels cheap to refer to an enjoyable single-location indie flick as having a gimmick. I've long-enjoyed low-budget films that pull off a clever narrative concept with what little money they have - think of genre titles such as Cube, Buried or the $7,000-budgeted Primer.

Exit 8 slots right in amongst those as we spend time in a set of almost identical subway corridors, following Kazunari Ninomiya's Lost Man as he tries to escape.

He's told by a sign in the opening stages to continue if there are no anomalies, and turn back if there are. Each successful corridor brings him one step closer to Exit 8, each failed one sends him back to level 0. While some changes are a poster or wording on a sign, others involve blood dripping from the ceiling or uneasy interactions with a character credited as Walking Man (Yamato Kochi).

Director and co-writer (alongside Kentaro Hirase) Genki Kawamura has stated, in adapting Kotake Create's 2023 game The Exit 8 to film, that he wanted to focus less on supernatural horror; here a repetitive, boring lifestyle can be just as terrifying. There may not quite be terror in Exit 8, although it fits best in the horror genre, but certainly eerie moments and a solid amount of tension builds in the Lost Man's fear he may never escape - especially as the changes become ever more difficult to notice.

The focus is predominantly on the fear at the centre of the film, and the ways in which the corridors repeat and play with those travelling through it - we see perspectives of others who have been caught part way through. It's here that things don't quite verge on being repetitive - events are largely well-contained with enough engagement in the situation to stretch to just over 90-minutes - but certainly it show signs of slightly losing steam.

Additions are made without feeling like they’re grabbing for an idea to keep things going. They fit in and work for the narrative at hand. In fact, here such points seem to help things along and hold engagement in the characters, and the growing tiredness they feel at the sight of shining white walls, reflecting the light from each other and above. The setting is well captured and with each corner turned, level advanced or restarted, each step successfully avoids the feeling of a video game declaring 'level up!' or otherwise.

What we have here is a solid, occasionally tense cycle, that leans into that factor without feeling numbingly repetitive. Things might show signs of steam being lost around the halfway point as we shift perspectives, but there's still plenty to like in the low-budget genre fare on display; one that utilises what it has with likeable effect and avoiding feeling gimmicky.

Three stars