Stars Teri Garr and Gene Hackman both previously appeared in both The Conversation (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974) - two pictures which were both first released in the same 1974 year. Full Moon in Blue Water (1988) is their third and final picture together where they both appeared.
Bright coastal light interfered with the lighting of the picture during filming. To control this problem, windows were affixed with mirrors and layers of gel, whilst during post-production, color correction was required to adjust the colour tones during the colour grade and film printing process.
In an interview in the October 1988 edition of 'American Cinematographer', director of photography Fred Murphy said that scenes in Blue Water Grill were designed to move from "one end of the bar to the other, in and out of rooms, watching people from other rooms and creeping up on the actors."
At around US $8 million, this was at the time the highest budgeted picture from production house Trans World Entertainment according to the 2nd April 1987 edition of show-business trade-paper 'The Hollywood Reporter'.
The name of the Texan town was 'Blue Water'. The name of the bar that Floyd (Gene Hackman) owned there was the 'Blue Water Grill'. Though bluewater is associated with Texas, the town name of 'Blue Water' in the film is fictional.