The original idea for Follow the Dead came from a dream actor Luke Corcoran had, which prompted him to write a short comedy about Irish thirty-somethings dealing with a zombie apocalypse. However, writer/director Adam William Cahill was intrigued by the notion of Irish Millennials, who he perceives as being too "pampered" in modern society, trying to cope with trauma incarnate, and thus went on to turn the idea into a one hundred page script.
Having shot the film in 2017, Follow the Dead was set to have its cast and crew screening, and start its festival run, in 2018. But having found post production to have been rife with hurdles and obstacles, the film wasn't completed until 2020. However, in a strange turn of events, the global Covid19 event took place right as the film was being entered into festivals. Oddly, it may have proved to be morbidly serendipitous, as the pandemic-centred film had somehow become more relevant than when it was produced.
Actor Luke Collins didn't have to feign his fear of the zombies on set as he was actually afraid of them; especially a certain female co-star.
Actress Marybeth Herron had worked with director Adam William Cahill on his end of year university project, the short film Inertia (2017), in which she played the lead female role. Subsequently she moved to London to further pursue her acting career, only to have to return to Ireland shortly thereafter, when Cahill contacted her once again to play the role of Liv in Follow the Dead, his first feature film with his new company, Wild Stag Productions.
The majority of the film takes place in the home of actor Tadhg Devery, which acts as the family home within the film. During the shoot, all the cast and crew lived in this house for over two weeks of shooting, with up to fourteen people spending the night at one stage.