In 2014 writer/director Michael Maren heard Chris Belden reading from his novel "Shriver" in a Massachusetts bookstore. He optioned the material on the spot.
Shriver was filmed on the University of Redlands campus in California.
Filming originally began in February of 2020 and was shut down in mid-March 2020, with eight days of scheduled production remaining, because of COVID. Filming resumed over resumed 400 days later but had to limit the timeline to six remain days to accommodate actors' schedules. According to Director Michael Maren, as a result of COVID guidelines, those filming days were shorter and had limited crew due. He went on to say, "I had to make decisions on the fly about simply not filming a couple of scenes or moving on when I would have wanted more time. One particular scene was originally scheduled for the better part of a day and we were forced to shoot it in three hours chasing daylight."
Acheron, the name of the college, is one of the five rivers of the underworld. It is the river of misery and suffering.
Michael Shannon and Don Johnson previously starred in Knives Out (2019), and Kate Hudson was in Glass Onion (2022).