Director Roberta Findlay says the savage rape of Leona (Rhetta Hughes) was inspired by the real-life rape and murder of Kitty Genovese, which occurred on March 13, 1964. At the time this was filmed, the widespread public understanding of the Genovese case was that while she was being murdered, many witnesses who resided in her apartment complex saw the event transpire and chose not to act either by intervening directly or alerting the authorities. This led to decades of the case being considered emblematic of bystander apathy and group inhumanity; however, this perception was derived almost totally from one largely inaccurate account of the murder that in the twenty-first century has been heavily debunked.
One of the only films ever to be rated X solely on the basis of its graphic violence.
The film was rejected for UK video (as "Game Of Survival") by the BBFC in 1987 and passed uncut (as "Tenement") in 2005.