Claustrophobia Horror

In April 2026 I've watched two video game movies almost back to back and couldn't help but notice the similarities.

Exit 8

Exit 8 by Genki Kawamura is a 2025 film adaptation of the 2023 video game "The Exit 8". It was released in the US on April 10th, 2026.

The protagonist (played by Kazunari Ninomiya) is an unnamed average guy trying to live his life. In the Tokyo subway, he doomscrolls social media and, after witnessing a salaryman yelling at a crying baby and her mother for being too loud, proceeds to ignore them. While transferring stations, he gets a call from his ex-girlfriend that she's in a hospital and has discovered that she's pregnant and asks for his opinion. The man tells her that he'll go see her, but when she tries to tell him something (implied to be either abortion or marriage related), the signal cuts off. The man goes through a passageway, eventually discovering that the linear corridor loops every second turn and he can't get out.

A plaque on the wall tells to "not overlook the anomalies". If there are none, proceed forward; if there are any, go the opposite direction. The correct answer increases the number on a nearby sign from 0 by 1, with the escape residing at "Exit 8". The anomaly means a discrepancy; each section of the corridor is usually identical but occasionally has either a subtle difference or contains a nightmarish and hostile event. If the protagonist makes the wrong turn, he, without a warning, finds the next turn having the "Exit 0" sign again.

As the protagonist struggles to leave the maze with no deadends, he experiences horrors that appear to be personalized to him. Which are all tellingly movie's additions, like the sound of baby cries from the locker. When his ex calls him again, he admits that by not standing up to the mother on the train he is unfit to be a father, only for the call to turn out to be a fake since there's still no signal.

Alongside our protagonist, we explore the past of the old man who keeps endlessly walking down the corridor. In a flashback, he turns out to be the previous victim trying to escape. He was also trapped along with a boy, who is much more observant than him. But when the man saw an exit that appeared earlier than it should have, he rushed in, leaving the boy behind who told him that this was a trap. Now the man got turned into a walking decoration, and the boy soon finds himself with our guy.

By paying attention to the kid and staying close to him, the man manages to almost reach the Exit 8, before a flood sweeps both of them away. With his fleeting strength, the man lifts the boy onto the hanging sign for safety. While he's knocked out, we see what appears to be a possible future with the kid ambiguously being the man's son. The man wakes up and shortly after finds Exit 8, also proving to himself he is ready to be a father by his previous actions. In the ending, he appears to have traveled a bit to the past as well, and when he sees the yelling salaryman again, this time he removes his headphones and walks up to him.

Iron Lung

Iron Lung by Markiplier is a film adaptation of the 2022 video game "Iron Lung", filmed in 2023. It was released on January 30, 2026.

In 2349, after the event called The Quiet Rapture, all stars and planets have inexplicably disappeared, leaving only a few space stations with a few hundred of the population. However, on one of the moons, an ocean of blood has been discovered, and humanity decides to send submarines with charged criminals to investigate.

The submarine is completely sealed off and is clearly hastly made. It contains just the photo scanner to even see the outside, a GPS, a toolkit, a fire extinguisher, and a computer. The protagonist is an initially nameless convict (played by Mark himself) who was on trial for blowing up one of the remaining space stations, which he denies. He asks to be let go if he investigates the ocean as told, but the superiors keep pushing the goals.

As the convict takes pictures of the locations of interest, it becomes apparent that there's something alive in the ocean until, with a violent shake, the submarine ends up completely outside of the map and with no communication. The convict discovers the debris of a submarine of the previous expedition but can't do anything about it due to not having the remote access password.

While at it, he keeps hearing voices from the creature, which is heavily implied to be an amalgam of the previous expeditioners. They have found an anomalous floating light allegedly related to The Quiet Rapture and lead the convict to it. Upon contact, the convict enters a series of hallucinations, inquiring if he's responsible for the deaths he's accused of, and he'd prioritize his own safety over the mission's goals.

The convict regains contact with his mission control, who insist the data from the previous submarine could prove crucial to understanding the cause of the stars disappearing, not giving him a choice. The creature tries to convince the convict to betray the mission so he can be pulled to the surface, but he unexpectedly refuses and downloads the logs. In response, the creature destroys the recovery submarine that came for him and tries to drown him as well. As the convict fights through accumulated X-ray poisoning, countless injuries, and the submarine mutating into flesh, he secures the safety of the submarine's black box before self-destructing it with himself inside, allowing the research of the previous expeditions to float to the surface and be recovered.

Common points

Despite two films having nothing to do with each other, I've found it curious that the two share quite a lot.

• The films are adaptations of a video game by the same name, with the original developer assisting with the writing.
• The films are psychological horror and have the protagonist face inner doubts about their selfishness, while the original games lacked the psychological aspect.
• Both almost entirely take place within a single room with no windows.
• The original games are minimalistic; you just need to reach the objective while solving a basic puzzle and can be completed in under half of an hour.
• Both games lacked a story. Iron Lung has a backstory, but what any of it meant and how the protagonist is tied to it were left to speculation. Exit 8 had no plot. Both films try to make a narrative out of the protagonist's perspective.
• Both films add subplots that weren't present originally for thematic symbolism, alongside new characters.
• Both films make the location sentient and trying to assimilate its victims, whereas in the game they simply hosted paranormal phenomena.
• Both protagonists nearly lose their minds due to stress and their accounts become suspect.
• Both include brief time travel aspects, the cause of which is left unexplained.
• At the climax of both films, the protagonist has a change in ideology and puts others above themselves, a position they have to fight for.
• Both films end on a hopeful note while not showing the aftermath.
• Both films became massive commercial successes worldwide.

New genre?

Could there be another film about a man trapped in an isolated environment who has to admit being in the wrong to get out? Potentially as a consequence, though probably not being directly inspired by these. This formula has been done many times before, and these won't be the last. But because both films have caught a lot of attention, this at least proves that this style of storytelling works despite the small budget, and we may end up seeing another take on it sooner or later. Both also have disproved the stereotype that movies based on a video game don't work by having a passionate director working closely with the author to convey the message without trying to be too original or aiming for general audience.

As for the personal opinion, I was pleasantly surprized by both movies turning pretty much nothing into a compelling narrative with a sympathetic stuggling hero. I wasn't expecting much, but they've managed to come up with rather thought-provoking experiences that deserve a high place in the horror listings.

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