This film starts with the introduction of main character Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima) a police detective who gets wounded while apprehending a criminal who had managed to escape after his interrogation. Apparently this event has made him quit the force and move away from the city. Now he is teaching criminology at a local university near his new home. His wife Yasuko (Yûko Takeuchi) seems to be very happy about this so at first glance things seemed to be going well for them. Then they meet the weirdest and creepiest neighbor ever and certain events start to happen.
Creepy slowly builds up tension and suspense and does a good job of drawing you into the story. You never quite know what is going on even if the film doesn't really hide what direction it is heading you still will be intrigued by the mystery that is presented to you. Especially one element after it's reveal will be a serious test of your nerves and patience. Because it is so outrageous and stupid that you will be scratching your head. But I had good hope that this element would get explained to us since it is the one thing that doesn't make sense at all. Unfortunately this doesn't happen and made my curiosity turned into rage. It is asked of you to accept that one element for what it is and then take every event and action like it's probable. Even if you could do this I will promise you that your rage won't die and you certainly won't be able to accept how the film ends. I was very willing to suspend disbelief had the film wowed me with the bizarre events that had taken place. And yes I must admit I was on the edge of my seat trying to make sense of it all wondering how they would make all of it believable. So much so that I even hoped for some supernatural element to be thrown into the mix. Things get so weird (even for Japanese standards) I would not have minded at all. But you are left with an ending that hardly satisfies because it doesn't answer the one question that is most pressing.
In the end the film is unconvincing of whatever it is trying to tell us. I am not even sure if the film has a message at all. Because for the most part it just wants you to accept with what is going on and it doesn't allow you to protest or criticize. It could be that the whole film is someone's dream or nightmare. Or that the main character didn't survive his ordeal at the beginning and that everything displayed is a manifestation of his own personal hell. But if that were the case there aren't enough hints to back that up since we don't really know the character that well. As you might have guessed the film will give some food for thought but whether that is good or bad I will leave up to you. For me personally it's a major letdown since the film did a real good job of hooking me in and then you simply can't end the film like it did.
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