Trivia

The title and general theme of the movie were inspired by Robert Johnson's song "Hellhound On My Trail."

While filming the scene in which Ross Graves breaks into the house in the woods and demands shots of bourbon from the Man in the House, real liquor was used. The drunk performance given by Josh McElfresh was authentic as a result of multiple takes from drinking the liquor.

During Jenna's murder scene, the voices of Josh McElfresh whispering and Eric Widing yelling are heard simultaneously. Originally, Eric Widing intended to only use McElfresh's whispered audio for the scene, but upon seeing a rough edit of the scene, Josh McElfresh thought it would be an interesting idea to combine his voice with Widing's. The end result is a mix of intentionally recorded audio and some sound bites from Widing's onset directing of Erin R. Ryan during the scene.

While every scene that was shot for the movie was used in the final cut, the long and continuous script revisions resulted in several scenes that were deleted or added during the film's production. Ross Graves was much more sadistic and confrontational in the original draft. In this draft, the original bar scene involved Ross instigating a fight with a few stereotypical guidos before killing them when they retaliated. This version of the script also had a higher body count during all of the action scenes. As it was originally written, there was a scene before Ross breaks down in the woods where, while exploring a location, he found a parked car with two lesbians having sex. He killed the women and proceeded to have sex with their corpses. Widing deleted this scene because he felt as though it was out of place and served no purpose aside from shock value, though he plans to use that scene in a future film with a better set up for it. Other deleted scenes included a flashback to a time when Ross caught his ex girlfriend having an affair, killed the man, then hesitantly let her live, and an extended dialogue in which he sells his soul to Ed Thornton. The home break in scene in which Ross confronts the man in the basement bar originally included an extended monologue from Ross, which was scrapped on set during the filming of the scene. Scenes added during production include Ross's flashback to the time in which he was evicted and roamed the streets of Dayton, the flashbacks of the female bartender walking through a field during a summer afternoon, the claymation segments and the monologue voice over which plays before the film's final act.

Writing initially began in May of 2011 and the earliest shots used in the movie, mostly night driving footage, were shot in August of 2011. The final edit was completed in September 2013.