The lineup of 2026 horror movies got a lot more promising in the last week, as one of the most promising upcoming video game adaptations locked in a deal for a U.S. release. Domestic audiences will soon be able to witness one of the freakiest subway tunnels imaginable in Exit 8, and the first trailer unleashed by indie distributor NEON has me convinced it could end up being the most visceral effective video game movie of the year, to say the least.
That feels like a wild statement to make in a year with so many promising game-sourced features amidst the myriad 2026 movie releases on the way. The star-studded new Street Fighter movie looks awesome, with Mortal Kombat II also showing huge promise. I’m also a bit wowed by the The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s latest promos, as that space-based game is my favorite of the franchise. And to say I’m pumped for Zach Creggers’ Resident Evil is to say water is slightly wet.
Yet, the trailer below still managed to vault Exit 8 above all others in terms of my excitement, and while I’ll admit there’s some recency bias happening (which I’ll speak more on below), I think the simplest explanation is that director and co-writer Genki Kawamura is making the most out of the game’s deceptively simple premise for a total haunted-house frightfest. Check the trailer out below!
Exit 8 Looks Exactly Like The Game, But With More Scares And A Deeper Story
For those unaware, Exit 8 is more or less a walking simulator that requires a rapt attention span, as the player is forced to walk down the same subway tunnel over and over again, with a goal of identifying and avoiding a variety of locational anomalies that range from mundane to terrifying. If one can take eight trips down the hallway where all the anomalies are identified and avoided, then the titular “exit” is attainable. But if only it were that easy…
I realize that it’s not that difficult to design a subway tunnel as seemingly nondescript as this, but it is still quite exhilarating to see just how meticulous the set design is, from the posters to the signs to the vents. Not to mention The Walking Man, as portrayed by Yamato Kochi. The only other (assumedly) living being in the game, he is doomed to walk an endless loop, and factors into several of the most hair-raising scares in the game. It looks like that’ll be the case in the movie as well, and seeing a real person in the role makes it all the more freaky.
The biggest visual difference here is the presence of an actual main character, as opposed to a first-person perspective, so we’re seeing Kazunari Ninomiya’s character The Lost Man displaying all of the harried reactions familiar to gamers, which is obviously more effective for a narrative film. Speaking of, the trailer teases new narrative details, making it appear as if The Lost Man has (or had) a son, and possibly a wife (or ex) that have him in a slightly off-kilter headspace. Nothing says trauma like a dead kid, amirite?
Well, except maybe a bunch of wet, hairless rat creatures, and especially any wet, hairless rat creatures that have giant human eyeballs growing in the middle of their backs.
I Played Exit 8 A Week Ago Without Even Knowing A Movie Was Coming
Speaking to the aforementioned concept of recency bias, I can admit that a chunk of my jubilance over the Exit 8 trailer isn’t solely about how great it looks, but is due to the fact that I literally just played the game for the first time in the week before the promo was released, and was completely clueless about any live-action adaptations. My main reason for playing is that the game, which was developed by Kotake Create and released in 2023, was recently made available to download for PlayStation Plus subscribers.
I also adore horror games, especially ones that I can play with my teenage daughter that don’t require weeks of coordinated playing times. So it was quite nice to be able to conquer Exit 8 and all of its surreal, brain-warping scares in two days’ time, with the experience being palpable enough to have us joking about similar anomalies occurring in our real lives. (One particular sequence involving a third figure in the hallway drew out my biggest reaction to a video game scare in recent memory.)
Imagine my surprise when, just days later, NEON stepped in to pick up the domestic distribution rights, soon to be followed by the release of the trailer above. It was almost like Christmas morning, except for all the rat creatures, and maybe one or two other differences. Had I been fully aware of the movie’s existence, I still don’t think my expectations for it would have been very high, considering the premise is so slight.
Thankfully, expectations are malleable, and Genki Kawamura has taken Exit 8 from a non-entity on my 2026 horror movie watchlist to the very top spot. (The fact that the film garnered positive reactions following its Cannes premiere and Japanese theatrical release also 100% help out here.) So the pressure is on Mario, Luigi, Ryu, Guile, Raccoon City and Johnny Cage to prove themselves worthy of usurping the anomalies.
Exit 8 will hit theaters here in the U.S. on April 10, 2026.
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