According to film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon, Shimizu is "one of a new breed of Japanese horror directors" who prefers to "suggest menace and violence rather than directly depict it".

He then enrolled in Nihon University where he met future collaborator and film producer Takashige Ichise.

[3] After graduating, he was given the opportunity to direct a short film for Kansai TV's horror omnibus "Gakkou no Kaidan G" when writer and director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who was teaching a filmmaking class that Shimizu, then working as an assistant director, attended, was impressed by a three-minute short film Shimizu had written and directed.

The studio quickly greenlit a sequel, as Shimizu was offered to direct, but chose to produce instead, prompting a replacement in form of Toby Wilkins.

The film was met with overwhelmingly negative reception, despite commercial success in both its direct-to-video and theatrical releases.