After the film was rejected for a UK cinema certificate in 1984 chief censor James Ferman ordered the original print to be re-exported back to the rights holder in Italy. This was to avoid any possible prosecution of either the UK distributor or the BBFC itself.
After many years of being banned in Britain the rights were purchased by UK company Vipco who issued the film originally as an export-only VHS version under close censor & police supervision. When censorship laws were relaxed in the UK it was submitted to the BBFC for a certificate in 2002 and received 22 secs of cuts to the razor-blade murder, as well as a strict guideline that the film could only be released with minimal publicity. The film was then issued on VHS by Vipco but a DVD release was canceled after some UK DVD distributors refused to stock it. Consequently it was never available on UK DVD until 2007 when the movie was released by Shameless Films, and this version contained similar cuts but reduced to 19 secs via a different edit.
The lead role was originally offered to Catriona MacColl who had previously starred in director Lucio Fulci's Frayeurs (1980), L'Au-delà (1981), and La Maison près du cimetière (1981). She was apparently a little suspicious and turned the offer down. It would have been her second time appearing with Paolo Malco.
Jack Hedley's voice is dubbed by another actor in the English-language version. It is quite reasonable for having a British actor to play a North American character.
Barbara Cupisti's debut.