The fly-over during the opening title sequence is a reference to _Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) (TV)_, also directed by Joe Berlinger.
Similar to its predecessor, the main characters are named after the actors who played them. However, since this film actually had a script, writers Dick Beebe and Joe Berlinger had to give the characters names long before casting. Below are the characters' names in the finished film and what they were called in the 3 January 2000 first draft of the script: Kim Diamond, Domini Van Teer; Jeffrey Patterson, Cotter Kaller; Erica Geerson, Heather Arendt; Tristen Ryler, Anna Tassio; Stephen Ryan Parker, Nick Leavitt.
The song "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer" by Queens Of The Stone Age plays over the scene in which everyone is drinking and smoking weed. The song's lyrics are simply "Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ecstasy and Alcohol" four or five times every verse. The chorus is "C-c-c-c-c-cocaine" a few times.
In the scene in which Jeffrey is sitting at a table in the madhouse and the camera moves towards him you can see an old s/w photograph hanging on the wall. This is a photo of Kyle Brody, the 8th kid kidnapped by Rustin Parr and the only one who wasn't killed by him. Kyle Brody was the main witness in the Rustin Parr trial and he described how the children were killed. He spent most of his life in a madhouse. So the madhouse in which Jeffrey lives could be exactly the one in which Kyle Brody spent his life. As the photo shows Kyle Brody as a grown-up, it was shot in the madhouse, too.
There is a man repairing the refrigeration unit at the roadside store and his pile of tools, stacked in the shape of the stick figure, can be seen twice (better visible in widescreen).
Unhappy with Joe Berlinger's version of the film, Artisan opted to re-shoot certain scenes to add more "traditional" horror movie elements and re-cut the movie to make it more commercial. Berlinger repeatedly states on the DVD commentary that he doesn't like the changes that were made and that they ruin the ambiguous tone of the plot.
Director Joe Berlinger had the main cast watch various horror movies concerning the supernatural, demon possession, and satanic rituals to get the actors prepared for their roles.
When the tour group picks up Kim Diamond in the cemetery, she is laying of a tomb marked "Treacle". Eileen Treacle is one of the Blair Witch's alleged victims that was drowned in a creek in the 1800's according to the "Curse of the Blair Witch" companion documentary.
Contains several hidden images of words, faces and stick figures throughout the feature. The movie features a hidden message if watched closely enough.