The film was cut by over twenty minutes before its original theatrical release date of December 1999 because of both a poor test screening and the MPAA's objections over the infamous dart torture scene. John Frankenheimer's preferred version was dark, gritty, and sexier. The film was released in Feburary 2000 in its shorter 104 minute version, which lost all of this, and the real essence of the story. Frankenheimer's original version was released a year later with the twenty minutes restored on DVD as his "Director's Cut".
In October 2007, Charlize Theron said in an interview in Esquire magazine that "Reindeer Games" was her least favorite of all her films. She said: "That was a bad, bad, bad movie. But I got to work with John Frankenheimer. I wasn't lying to myself - that's why I did it."
After poor test screenings, John Frankenheimer admitted that he should've been a little more open to re-shoots to fix the problems of the film, as his original vision based on Ehren Kruger's script had become a completely different version once filming began.
According to Danny Trejo, the reason Vin Diesel was replaced in the role that Donal Logue wound up playing was because Diesel was offered a starring role in Rapides et dangereux (2001). Diesel wisely went with The Fast and the Furious, and was discharged from this movie.
In the scene where Dana Stubblefield stabs Ben Affleck, Stubblefield accidentally knocked Affleck down, causing a concussion. Filming had to be halted while Affleck recovered.