I just wonder why this was never released outside of Japan. The writing is superb, really drawing you into the story, and the mystery keeps you hooked. There is just enough horror too to keep you on edge. It's very compelling and sometimes even funny with the detective constantly thinking he figured things out only to be obviously wrong. I don't think you can really predict all the twists. You may get a sense of some but I think the ending is genuinely surprising. It's artistic too with some parts filmed in a very unique manner especially for back then. The atmosphere of this film is outstanding too. I also highly recommend the next film in this series, The Devil's Ballad (1977) aka Akuma no temari-uta. It's incredible too.

this movie worth every minute i spent to watch it , brilliant direction and well organise mysterious story with many twists.its really shocking when you realise that this movie produce in 1976 ,such an amazing storytelling and effects with only simple camera moves .highly recommended . the unconventional story makes this movie more entertaining ,the pace of the story is quite slow in the beginning then gradually become fast that you need to go back in some parts of the movie to catch up with the events . I'm really a big fan to the classic Japanese horror movies ,but this one is totally exceptional and give you a different taste.