While shooting, Shawn Elestren was actually on bail for serious assault and narrowly avoided being sent to jail for setting a brief scene on the Forth Road Bridge. The police were called and he was questioned. Had they searched him they would have found the Glock 17 and 16-inch hunting knife seen in the movie (both highly illegal to carry in the UK) and arrested him immediately.
The forest featured in the movie is based on Aokigahara Forest near Mount Fuji in Japan, otherwise known as the "suicide forest" which sees an average of 3 suicides a week. It is also said to be haunted by multiple "Yurei" - Japanese ghosts who are angry at their own deaths. Shawn appears as a Yurei in the second half of the movie. This premise was later used in the Gus Van Sant film The Sea of Trees (2015) and yet again one year later in The Forest (2016).
This short was actually a compromise by Shawn Elestren, who wanted to spend all of summer 2012 shooting an epic sequel to Shawn's Dark Xmas (2012) but Tom Leon decided that he wanted nothing more to do with him and cut all ties. As a last-minute option the script for Shawn4Ever was thrown together.
Shawn Elestren regretted not shooting the film anamorphically or featuring wide-open locations and felt that the narrow aspect ratio made for an unintended claustrophobic feel.