Loosely based on the Smiley face murder theory in which the bodies of young men have been mysteriously found in water with smiley face graffiti nearby, dating back to the 1990s. The deaths have been ruled as accidental drowning but many believe a serial killer or a group of killers may be involved. The plot of this movie is based on the latter theory.
Ronen Rubinstein was also cast in screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis's TV adaptation of his own book Less Than Zero (2019) shortly after his work on this movie, but the pilot wasn't picked up.
In order to portray the Hooded Figure, Crispin Glover requested that for the prosthetic makeup he had to wear for the role, that the crew use old fashion makeup effects that would have been used by silent film star Lon Chaney in films like The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). These effects involved putting physical hooks in Glover's mouth and his lower eyelid to distort his face, with the hooks being hidden under makeup.
The scenes at "California State University" were actually filmed on the campus of Woodbury University in Burbank, CA.