Test screenings included a fourth vignette centering on a malevolent witch spirit who haunted a cemetery. The distributor told the filmmakers that the movie's two hour running time was excessive and details of the low-contrast day-for-night footage would be difficult to discern on drive-in screens, so the entire sequence was removed prior to the film's general release.
Shortly after the filmmakers had secured financing, their production office burned to the ground. Everything was lost except for one copy of the script, which writer Richard H. Wadsack had serendipitously brought home that evening to work on.
As an anthology horror film, the main characters tell each other "frightening" stories. One of these vignettes is set and shot in Caspari Hall, a dormitory on the campus of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, the college which the film's actors attended. Caspari Hall is now abandoned and, reportedly, haunted, although this does not prevent it from being a popular, if off-limits, make-out/party spot.
The actors in the wraparound segments appear as different characters in the vignettes. It wasn't scripted this way, but the filmmakers concluded it was an easy way to cut costs, rationalizing that it would be natural for the people listening to envision themselves in the stories.
Director James L. Wilson had been working as the director of an arts center in El Dorado, Arkansas, where he met child actor William Ragsdale. Ragsdale had made such an impression that a role in the film was specifically created for him.