A freaky horror that will have you worried during your commute

On holiday in Tokyo a few years ago I saw a salaryman tumble down an escalator to the train platform at the bottom. Another man stood above him, as if he might have been responsible. Was there a dispute? Did they even know each other? The man in a heap looked up and made eye contact with me as if to say, ‘there’s nothing to see here’ and then dozens (hundreds?) of fellow commuters walked around or stepped over him on their way to the next destination of their own lives.

In the normally well-ordered world of Japanese public transport you could call the incident “an anomaly” – something that clearly happened but was paid no attention to.

Anomalies like that are the driving force of Genki Kawamura’s fascinating video game adaptation, Exit 8. A commuter on his way to a temp job exits his train at an unfamiliar station. As he heads to the exit, the same four sections of subway repeat in a loop and he learns that his only way out is to solve a puzzle that requires his close attention.