The budget was so low that they could not afford to mock-up an ad printed in a fake newspaper for the Blands' swingers advertisement so production designer Robert Schulenberg instead designed an ad and ran it in the "L.A. Weekly," an alternative newspaper. Unlike the vast number of replies the Blands got in the movie, the real ad attracted only one response.
According to Issa Clubb's "10 Things I Learned: Eating Raoul" web-pages, "The film was shot on multiple stocks, cadged from a variety of sources. Much of it was shot on donated "short ends," short unused portions of unexposed film. Some of the longer runs of stock given to the production had been rejected by the donors because of noticeable mold growth on the cans that held it. The team shot the film and then crossed their fingers and delivered it to the developing lab."
The movie was inspired by Paul Bartel's wish to make a personal eccentric film that would star both himself and Andy Warhol regular Mary Woronov.
Years after the film became a cult favorite, a sequel was scripted in which a man blackmailed the Blands with knowledge of their killings. Chevy Chase was slated to play this man, and Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov would reprise their roles from the original, but Bartel died before it could get started.
Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov reprised their roles of Paul Bland and Mary Bland for a cameo appearance in Shopping (1986).