Escape to EXIT 8

EXIT 8 (Blu-ray)

2025 / 95 min

NEON

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

Exit 8 accomplishes what I didn’t think was possible, which makes it kind of an anomaly (my fiendishly clever nod to the film’s source material).

I’m generally not a big fan of movies based on video games, especially those adapted from games with no actual stories. Most of the time, the end result is an exercise in redundancy and a lose-lose situation. If your story strays too far from the original concept, you alienate the gamers. But if you stay too faithful to the gameplay, you defeat the purpose of making your movie in the first place (save for those who get their jollies watching other people play video games). 

Exit 8 plays very much like the game, confirmed by my far hipper daughters who’ve actually played it, which essentially has an escape room premise: The player is trapped in a subway station, forced to repeatedly walk through the same passageways unless they can spot anomalies (something out-of-place) that weren’t there before, which allows them to move forward to the next identical passageway. Once they reach exit 8, they can escape and win the game (something you couldn’t do back in this Boomer’s day of trying in vain to get the highest Asteroids score). But I probably didn’t need my daughters’ help to determine the film’s video game origins. Repetition, multiple failure and escape make up nearly the entire plot of this one.

Some folks need help counting to 1.

However, director/co-writer Genki Kawamura adds a crucial element that totally justifies its existence as a movie: Creating an engaging protagonist whose personal life (namely his relationship with his estranged, pregnant ex-girlfriend) significantly guides the narrative. From a thematic standpoint, the changes and epiphanies he experiences ultimately become the crux of the entire film. Without revealing too much, the main reason Exit 8 works so well as a movie is because we’re invested in this guy…who’s simply identified as ‘The Lost Man’ (which turns out to be accurate in more ways than one).

At the same time, Exit 8 never forgets it’s based on a horror game, though not of the blood & guts variety. With a stark, mostly white setting that gives off a vibe similar to The Shining, the film is extremely atmospheric, its presentation almost trancelike. The best moments are ambiguous and subtly creepy, such as the repeated appearance of The Walking Man, or the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it advertising signs that appear to track the protagonist as he’s walking. Other characters come and go, but the most significant of them is a young boy who figures prominently in the story’s denouement. 

The repetition threatens to become rote at times, and I can’t help but think someone like Rod Serling probably could’ve summed up the plot, its themes and inevitable twist ending in a concise 30 minutes. But that’s a minor quip, and admittedly, the deliberate pace eventually works in the film’s favor…with a resolution that’s not-only worth waiting for, it’s emotionally affecting. Whether you’ve actually played the game or not, Exit 8 is a rewarding film that almost makes you feel like you’re trying to escape right along with its main character. 

EXTRA KIBBLES

THE MAKING OF EXIT 8 is an excellent hour-long doc, featuring plenty of cast/crew interviews.

Q&A WITH WRITER/DIRECTOR GENKI KAWAMURA - Filmed at the Busan International Film Festival.

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CRIME WAVE is Classic Sterling Hayden

CRIME WAVE (Blu-ray)

1954 / 74 min

Warner Archive Collection

Available at MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😺

Both on and off screen, Sterling Hayden was kind of a badass, and I could never shake the impression that most of the tough guys he played were basically an extension of himself. While I doubt he possessed the ability to ‘disappear’ into a character, that towering (often menacing) persona served him well. Absolutely nobody could steal a scene from Sterling Hayden.

His most famous roles are arguably those in Dr. Strangelove and The Godfather, but my personal favorite performances were the antiheroes he played in the film noir classics, The Killing and The Asphalt Jungle. Though he plays a cop in 1955’s Crime Wave, the only discernible difference between Detective Sims and Dix Handly is the former is on the right side of the law (well, that and Sims is always seen chomping a toothpick in an effort to quit smoking). As the head of L.A.’s homicide division, Sims is intense, intimidating and not above threatening informants or witnesses to get what he wants. And Hayden looks like he had a great time playing him. 

The story begins - pretty violently - with three escaped convicts robbing a gas station, killing a cop in the process. One of them gets shot, as well, and ends up at the apartment of old prison-mate Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson), who has since gone straight and has a wife, Ellen (Phyllis Kirk). However, the robber, Gat Morgan (Ned Young) dies shortly after. The police arrive, led by Sims, who suspects Steve knows the whereabouts of the other two, threatening to send him back to prison if he doesn’t cooperate.

The man who invented road rage.

 A few days later, those other two men, Doc Penny (Ted de Corsia) and Ben Hastings (Charles Bronson), show up and force Steve to take part in a daring bank robbery, holding Ellen hostage to assure his cooperation. By this time, Steve has also become the primary suspect in a murder committed by Hastings and is now the subject of a citywide manhunt, with Sims chomping-at-the-bit to nail him. It’s an exciting, fast-paced story with a couple of nifty twists during the climax. Nelson makes a likable, sympathetic protagonist, and it’s a lot of fun seeing a very young Bronson playing a hot-headed killer. But Crime Wave is most compelling whenever Hayden is onscreen, even though we’re kinda rooting against Sims throughout most of the movie. 

While I wouldn’t rank Crime Wave among the greatest of the genre, it’s a solidly entertaining film noir that makes great use of its star and Los Angeles locations. In addition to a nice Blu-ray transfer, this release from Warner Archive comes with a good assortment of bonus features. 

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTE - Crime Wave: The City is Dark is a retrospective appreciation featuring numerous directors, historians and critics.

SHORT - “Gadgets Galore,” from 1955, this is a brief history of the automobile.

LOONEY TUNES SHORT - “Baby Bunny Bunny” has Bugs getting the best of a bonk robber.

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