Molly Parker almost quit acting just before getting this role. She had just come off of a guest spot on the Highlander series (1992) and felt unfulfilled, not only by that part, but by acting as a profession. She longed to play a full character. So when cinematographer Gregory Middleton, who had worked with Parker before on a short film, reached out to her about taking the lead role on Kissed, Parker took the leap. She didn't care that it was a very controversial film and role that could possibly ruin her career, because to her mind, she didn't have a career to ruin.
The film is based on real life necrophiliac Karen Greenlee who in 1979 stole a corpse while working as an embalmer at a mortuary. She was driving a hearse with the corpse of a male to its funeral when she instead made a U-turn and decided to keep the corpse for her sexual pleasure. She was later caught and confessed to having had sex with 30 to 40 corpses.
Director Lynne Stopkewich said in an interview that she put off telling her parents what the film was about for over a year. Once she broke the news to her mom and dad, they were horrified at first. But, after they saw the film, the director's mother exited the theater weeping with affection for the lead character. Her father was moved as well. As Stopkewich said: "I had just committed a subversive act. I got my parents to love this necrophile."
The filmmakers didn't have enough money to produce dailies while filming, and only saw them three months later, after the director had received some financing from the National Film Board in Canada.
The film was never intended for theaters. Director Lynne Stopkewich made the film as her Master's thesis for film school at the University of British Columbia. Very few of the cast and crew involved in the making of the film had worked on a feature before. They didn't even have a regular call sheet. Some members of the crew (including star Molly Parker) lived in the production office.