David Cronenberg (26 at the time) secured funding for the film from the Canadian government by pretending he was writing a novel.
The film was shot without any sound recording because the 35mm camera made too much noise. The voice over was added later.
As part of the University of Toronto's regional expansion, the Scarborough College was created in the 1960s. Designed by John Andrews, the first building of the campus began construction in 1964. Due to delays in construction after a strike among workers, the Scarborough College opened in temporary classes at the main campus to 191 full-time students in 1965. The first building was completed in time for the following academic year. The college included a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) television production studio. This was for a unique video lecturing system the college was initially planned to have, that relies on the use of closed circuit television for teaching purposes. (The system grabbed international media attention, and was complimented in the 1967 edition of Time. However, the video lecturing system was abandoned after it was condemned for the lack of communicability of students with instructors.). The brutalist architectural style of the campus at that time, the new TV studio and the futuristic lecturing system can be seen in Stereo (Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic) (1969), which makes this film a unique historical document, too.
Included as a bonus on the 2004 Blue Underground DVD of 10.000 PS - Vollgasrausch im Grenzbereich (1979) and the Alliance Atlantis 2004 DVD of same.
Also included on the 2014 Criterion DVD of Scanners - Ihre Gedanken können töten (1981)
Main cast member Ronald Mlodzik's sister, Arlene Mlodzik, was cast as the alternate personality of the surviving woman at the end of the film. While Ronald Mlodzik went on to act in a number of other Cronenberg films, Arlene's only credited acting role was in Stereo.