This was the final feature film completed by Christopher Reeve before a horse riding accident on May 27, 1995 which left him paralyzed.
The film was shot in western Marin County, California. Director John Carpenter had a house in Inverness for several years, so the location was essentially his second home at that time (as the director puts it, "his own backyard"). However, the locals were not happy to see the film crew in the area so they made the shoot very difficult by harassment and vandalism. Carpenter tells that while they were filming, for example, a sound take, a neighbor would start mowing his lawn or start up a chainsaw until he was paid to stop. Some of the people even tried to break into the equipment trucks. The whole experience essentially soured Carpenter on living in the area, where several scenes of his earlier film "The Fog (1980)" were also filmed.
In a 2011 interview, John Carpenter described the film as a "contractual assignment" which he was "really not passionate about".
According to Lindsey Haun in an online interview Christopher Reeve, who was incredibly kind and friendly to all, would keep his distance from the child actors to help portray the friction between their characters on screen.
John Carpenter invited Wolf Rilla, the director of the original version of "Village of the Damned (1960)," to the set. Rilla obliged and visited the set with his wife.