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.