Though credited as producer, John Carpenter described his involvement in this way: "I come in and say hello to everybody. Go home."
Selma Blair did almost all of her own stunts. For her underwater scenes, she spent 12 hours in a water tank, with only short surface breaks, for two days straight.
In between takes in Vancouver, press were granted access to the set. During Selma Blair's interview, director Rupert Wainwright made a joke she didn't like. In response, Blair reached into her shirt, pulled out a rubber breast enhancement pad, and flung it across the conference room at the director, deadpanning, "That's the Adrienne Barbeau part of the role."
Tom Welling's character, Nick Castle, is named after Nick Castle, the actor who played The Shape in John Carpenter's La Nuit des masques (1978).
In this version Elizabeth is the daughter of the town official. In the earlier version these characters were played by real life mother and daughter Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis. However, in that version their characters are not connected and only share one scene and never speak to each other on screen.