Indie Horror game, The Exit 8, Receiving Movie Adaptation from Godzilla Studio

Only a little over a year after the release of its viral indie horror game The Exit 8, developer Kotake Create has announced that a full live-action film is on the way. This announcement was accompanied by a short teaser trailer that offers a glimpse into what the film will have to offer. The distribution and production company Toho Studios has signed on to spearhead the development of this intriguing project.

Over the past several years, movie adaptations of games have seen somewhat of a resurgence. Larger franchises have received blockbuster releases such as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Sonic the Hedgehog”, and even smaller indie games have gotten adaptations, as seen in the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” film. With how quickly this announcement was made relative to when the game was released, it would seem that this trend is continuing to make waves in the film industry.

While the previously mentioned franchises had clear plots and paths to follow for their film adaptations, The Exit 8’s story is a bit less clear as the game itself is almost completely without a plot. All set in a single passageway, the game has the player walk down the hallway and try to spot the anomalies. If the player notices that something is out of the ordinary, they can turn around and go back the way they came to advance. The goal is to reach the final platform by correctly identifying anomalies eight times in a row and escaping the loop. Along the way, several of the anomalies can reset your progress with potential jumpscares or other unsettling visuals. It strikes a delicate balance of fairness and liminal horror that made it a viral hit, scoring over 1.4 million downloads worldwide. This success even led to a sequel with a new setting and similar looping gameplay titled Platform 8.

Although the game itself is light on story, the Japanese studio Toho should have no trouble creating a compelling narrative given the source material. Toho is responsible for the creation of Godzilla and has created 33 films to date about the iconic reptilian monster. Some of its most recent films, such as 2023’s “Godzilla Minus One” and 2016’s “Shin Godzilla,” received acclaim from critics and box-office success. In addition to the Godzilla films, Toho has also dabbled in video game adaptations in the past, producing both “Pokémon Detective Pikachu” in 2019 and “Monster Hunter” in 2020.

The released teaser for the upcoming The Exit 8 film gives viewers a glimpse of the iconic corridor in which the game takes place. There is also a shot of the man who walks down the corridor at the beginning of the game and in subsequent levels. While it’s difficult to gather much from the brief trailer, the atmosphere and eeriness created already give off a familiar feeling that fans of the game are sure to appreciate.

With the aforementioned resurgence of video games in film, it’s nice to see even indie games make the leap to the big screen. Kotake Create developed The Exit 8 in only nine months on a low budget, following a simple concept to viral success. The fact that such a minimalistic yet effective horror experience can balloon into a worldwide phenomenon with a film on the way bodes well for not only the game industry but for indie developers everywhere.