Exit 8 is based on an anomaly game of the same title that was hyped on the internet like last year. The idea of it is you're stuck in a corridor where if you take a turn you'll see the same corridor again with a sign "Exit 8" hanging above and your goal is pretty simple, when you see an anomaly you return and when you see no anomaly you walk forward to progress the game and finally reach the exit.
I never dove into the fandom of this game and have no idea how far it spread or how popular it is (although when you see a movie based on it, it means it reached some level of popularity). But I consider it the most successful among the games that are based on anomaly search. It can serve as a metaphor to something else and movie actually includes some of it in the plot (more in spoilers).
For those who played or watched playthroughs of this game will see several biggest homages to the game's anomalies (e.g. blood dripping from the ceiling or my personal favorite - eyes on the posters that follow you).
But the movie team decided to expand and added a story to it, which although was a bit predictable ended up quite okay and I think it tied in all the parts quite nicely together. So this movie might be a horror, but any of that was just an appendage to a story for me and wasn't scary at all. I think Exit 8 leans toward psychological side of things more.
If I were to rate according to some sites, I'd say:
- Story - 7/10 (a bit predictable, but still good when you finish it)
- Visuals - 10/10 (the replica of the game is insanely accurate, it's simple but top-notch; visuall effects are fine)
- Operator and director's work - 10/10 (the best part of it to me, since it looked insanely good, I have no idea who came up with that storyboard, the way it was shot looked really good)
- Actors - 7/10 (the main goes to the male lead, I think I know him. The middle-aged man played well, I don't wait for any profound play from a child, the rest is a bit plain and some over the top parts)
Personal advice: Don't watch any trailer. I usually skip trailers anyway, but most of the time they spoil things too much.
The Lost Man
The movie is separated into three parts, the first one that comes after the intro is titled The Lost Man.
Unnamed man is standing in a subway car and listened to a famous classical piece "Bolero" when he witnesses a man harassing a young woman with a young child by shouting at her and telling her to shut her baby. Everyone in the car pays no attention to it.. and so does the man. He declines incoming call once. He accepts when he is now on his way out and we see from the 1st POV how he walks up the stairs while answering his phone. His ex-girlfriend tell him she is pregnant. And she doesn't know what to do. The man is shocked, he is also.. lost. When we see that something around him is changing and he looks up to see the sign - Exit 8.
The man starts walking, seeing some strangely looking middle-aged man turning around the corner and walking in the opposite direction, the man doesn't talk and moves like a programmed person. The man turns around the corner, passes the lockers and a photo booth, there is a big sign with directions, but a number 0 at the top. The man pays no attention to it. Only to find himself in the same corridor, with the same sign Exit 8, same middle-aged man walking towards him. This is how a spacial loop is closed. He walks forward and finally notices the information / rules hanging on the wall: If you see anomaly - walk back, if you see no anomaly, move forward. With each correct turn the number on the big sign changes. But if you make the wrong choice - it turns to 0, losing all progress.
There is no need to think much about what this part can mean and the movie as a whole, after all it is called Lost Man. With the sudden news of unexpected child you see the reaction of this man is uncertainty and inability to make decision right there - does he want this child or not?
I see this corridor for him as a mind loop, when you ask yourself the same question over and over and try to see the exit.
Same here, he tries to find the exit and panics at times, especially when the progress is lost. The most touching part in here is how he confesses to his actions at the beginning of the movie - standing and acting like everybody else when young mother needed help.
But suddenly he meets a boy and thinks he is an anomaly too, but when he turns and notices the loss of the progress he realizes that the young boy is just like him - lost.
But while the two decided to walk together, we switch to..
The Walking Man
The middle-aged man who tugged the young boy along and was also lost in the corridor is of lesser significance story-wise to me. It's more like a character that shows that you can indeed lose, lose yourself eventually and become part of this place.
The one who walks towards him is a young woman, who suddenly talk to him and asks him if he's also lost, this place is strange, are we dead she asks, maybe this is hell. before the young woman glitches and it is evident she's still an anomaly.
While they walk forward we see the young boy stand near a door that obviously has a door handle in the middle (anomaly), but the man disregards it and walks forward, obviously losing all progress. Having a mental breakdown he walks forward and finaly sees the exit, he believes it's an exit, but the young boy refuses to follow and returns. He walks forward and lees the 'lost man'.
I loved how they made it feel like a timeloop and also spacial loop. Because we see the boy's perspective when the lost man first saw the boy. The boy follows and points at the middle-aged man, when the lost man says - he's no longer human. Interesting how they linked the beginning and ending in such a way that he we see him say this phrase twice, at the beginning when he first met the boy and after the boy met him and we as viewers witnessed what happened to the middle-aged man.
So..
The Boy
The boy is the last arc that now shows the lost man and the boy walking the corridors and slowly making progress. The man notices that sometimes the boy actually is more perceptive of anomalies than him, so he pays attention to him.
They also talk.
The boy says he is lost, he got lost on purpose, wanting for his mom to find him.
The man asks him - what about your dad? The boys said he doesn't have a dad.
At this point there is no need to be a genius to figure out that the boy is this man's future son. It's as if this place gave him the chance to make a choice.
The man decided to lead the boy to the exit. The boy gives the man a shell as a lucky charm.
They do make progress and when they're almost there they suddenly hear the siren and the flood keeps pouring in. They might be swept by the sheer amount of water at any moment when we're switched to a diferent picture, a beach and a family of three. The man saves the boy, lifting him up to grab the hanging sign, while he disappears.
The boy wakes up among the debris and mud, he stands up, walks in the right direction and is close to finding exit, though we don't see it happening.
We switch back to the man, who survived, he sees the turn, sees the exit and sairs that lead downwards, he picks up his phone and makes a call, walking down the same corridor he walked at the very beginning, his ex-girlfriend picks up the phone, he asks where she is and says he will be there right away.
He enters the subway car, we see the same scene from the very beginning, the young woman with a crying child and a man shouting at her. The man looks forward with his eyes glistening with tears and he turns towards the young woman.
Movie ends.
I left out some jumpscare and metaphorical parts. Jumpscare are present, but some of them contradict to what already happened, the character's reaction. Because at one point the man is pretty decicive when it comes to seeing anomalies and turning back, but at two or so moment it was as if he got stuck just so we could witness the "horror" part.
The idea of this movie is pretty simple, the beginning was a bit tedious I must say, but when it came to loops and at the walking man part it started to become visually interesting, especially the camerawork and how they created a loop in the movie.
I think the story itself is okay, it's predictable, but I liked how they tied together the idea of this man losing himself and looking for an answer and the boy being there for him to make the choice.
I also find that the movie can still be open for interpretation if you insist on it. Did the man ever leave the car, did that all happen in his head? Or on the contrary, did he ever find the exit? I believe in the happy ending of it all.
Another interesting part that many don't know about, but I think is a pretty fine coincidence. I have no idea if this director ever watched a cartoon title "Bolero" by Ivan Maksimov, which uses the same classical music piece that was used in Exit 8. I'll include it here. The point of this small cartoon is a creature that walks in a loop following its' own tail, maybe not even knowing the tail belongs to it. I just think it's fun that it also has idea of being in a loop here too.
RATE: 7/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment