Although the movie establishes that the events happen in Blue Hill County, Pennsylvania, actually the movie was filmed in North Yorkshire, England. In real-life Blue Hill is a summit close to Susquehanna River in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, having 17821 as ZIP Code delivery area.
This film gives quite a few nods to various scenes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (a car on the road at night with stars moving in the sky behind the car, a van turning on and turning off by itself, strange noises in the telephone, a house taken by strange lights, a toy monkey with cymbals, a toy train, someone looking inside a chimney draft) and Signs (2002) (static on TV, a swing moving alone, a family trapped in their house besieged by aliens, a family broke after a personal loss).
The rifle carried by the lead actor is a German K98 with scope. Sometimes it appears with a hooded sight, sometimes the sight is uncovered.