Although filmed in Ontario, Canada and British Columbia, Canada, the story ostensibly takes place in or near a place called "Beaumont, New York," which is not a real town, city, or county in the State of New York.
Based on the novel A Maidens Grave by Jeffrey Deaver.
The school bus the children are in is labeled "Laurent Clerc, Beaumont, New York." This is not an actual school or place. "Laurent Clerc" is a reference and tribute to a real person named Laurent Clerc (December 26, 1785 - July 18, 1869), who, for approximately 150 years was known as "The Apostle of the deaf in America" by many generations of American deaf people. Clerc was taught at Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets, a famous school for deaf education in Paris. With Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Clerc co-founded the first North American school for deaf persons in North America, the Hartford Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb on April 15, 1817 in the old Bennet's City Hotel, located in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. The school was subsequently re-named the American School for the Deaf and moved to its present site in 1821. The school remains the oldest existing school for the deaf in North America. While there is no Beaumont in New York or Connecticut, there is a Beaumont in Quebec, Canada, which is also probably a reference to Laurent Clerc, since he was born in France, and Quebec is the only French native speaking province in Canada.
The character of "Theodore 'Ted' Handy" is a reference to Theodore 'Ted' Bundy a notorious serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and necrophiliac who assaulted, kidnapped, raped, and murdered dozens of young women throughout the 1970s, and maybe earlier. While being pursued, then caught, and prosecuted, and imprisoned, he made continuous and consistent denials, only confessing, immediately prior to his execution, to about 30 murders committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. His actual number of victims is still unknown, and is likely considerably higher. Bundy was considered handsome and charismatic by his victims and potential victims, which he exploited in order to gain their trust. He typically approached them in public places, faking a disability or injury, occasionally impersonating some sort of authority figure, thereafter overpowering and assaulting his victims in a quiet, remote location, such as the abandoned building as depicted in this movie. Bundy was executed by the State of Florida in 1989.
Shown at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, despite being a made for TV movie.