Exit 8: Notice Your Neighbor

Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss another indie-horror-game-turned-movie, Exit 8! First off, how is it as an adaptation? Also, can a 40-ish minute game really get turned into a 90-minute movie? And what about a dramatic throughline; what’s keeps audiences emotionally hooked?

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 25-minutes discussing The Hollywood Reporter’s “Inside PIxar’s Scrapped Movie ‘Be Fri’ and the “Devastating” Aftermath” by Ryan Gajewski, how we feel about Disney/Pixar canceling a Magical Girl movie, and how it’s hard to tell if this is a win or loss post-KPop Demon Hunters. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• What is Anomaly Horror, and what are Kat & Melvin’s thoughts on the original indie game?
• For Kathryn, it felt like a really good Twilight Zone episode. For Melvin, there was a moment where he wondered if it’d become his #1 film for 2025.
• How does the film embrace the Anomaly Horror genre, and why is Anomaly Horror so popular nowadays?
• How do we respond during “everyday” anomalies, things that disrupt the status quo?
• There’s so much humanity to this story.
• Mel, “It is interesting that his dramatic thing is that, “If I’m not caring for my neighbor, how can i care for my family?””
• The ending feels like a call to action.

Recommendations:

• Cube (1998) (Movie) (Podcast Episode)
• The Fly II (1989) (Movie)

Exit 8 is Rated PG-13 for some bloody images and terror. It features Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Nana Komatsu, and Reo Soda. Directed by Genki Kawamura. Exit 8 is available here.

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Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

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