Kotone Hanase as High School student in Exit 8Image via Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection
With video game adaptations currently experiencing a purple patch on the big screen, an unexpected new movie is gaining word-of-mouth traction at home. Last week saw the release of Mortal Kombat II, which grossed around $65 million worldwide in its opening weekend. The action sequel was released only a few weeks after The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which remains the year’s top-grossing film and is on the verge of passing the coveted $1 billion mark worldwide. The two big-budget video game adaptations overshadowed what was easily the most acclaimed recent video game adaptation, and we’re not talking about YouTuber Markiplier‘s self-funded and self-distributed hit Iron Lung. The movie in question holds a “Certified Fresh” 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the highest-rated video game adaptation of all time.
The movie hails from Japan, and was released domestically by Neon earlier this year in April. It grossed more than $3 million in its limited run in domestic theaters, and is now sitting at nearly $45 million worldwide. Like Iron Lung and the recent Five Nights at Freddy’s blockbusters, it was based on an independent video game. The film follows a man trapped in an eerie subway corridor who descends into terror as he scrambles to get back to his ex-girlfriend.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Your New Favorite Horror Movie Is a Click Away
We’re talking about the film Exit 8, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025 before being released theatrically in Japan in August last year. Directed by Genki Kawamura, the movie stars Kazunari Ninomiya in the lead role of “The Lost Man.” Exit 8 harks back to the J-horror era that produced gems such as The Ring, The Grudge, Ju-On: The Curse, and Dark Water. In addition to its 93% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, Exit 8 has received an 87% audience score on the aggregator website. The site’s consensus reads, “An unsettling maze navigated with finesse by director Genki Kawamura, Exit 8 is a video game adaptation rendered with existential dread and stylistic sophistication.” Positive word about the film seems to be catching on; according to FlixPatrol, it was among the most-watched movies on the domestic iTunes and Google charts this week. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
