Kim Basinger pulled out of the title role and was successfully sued for $9 million for violation of a verbal contract. Because of this, she was forced to declare bankruptcy. The award was overturned on appeal, and the case was settled out of court.
Filmed in Atlanta attorney Ed Garland's 15,000 square foot mansion. The house also was used for portions of Driving Miss Daisy (1989).
The composition of the movie's promotional poster is a re-creation of figure artist Ruth Bernhard's 1962 photograph, "In the Box (Horizontal)". The original is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Jennifer Lynch wrote the screenplay in less than two months when she was just 19, but even with the marketing capital that "daughter of David Lynch" represented, "no one wanted a young, blonde girl to direct a movie", she said in a 1993 interview with the LA Times. But all interested directors wanted to do it as a horror film, and Lynch remembered that she began to feel very protective of the script. "I was in love with this story and it wasn't about a guy hacking up some beautiful woman that he wanted to screw. And though I never really wanted to go into film--that was Dad's thing and I had so much respect for what he did that I just considered it all his--I started to have these fantasies that I should direct it so it wouldn't turn into some horrible misinterpreted gore-fest." Then she added, "Horror fans will be terribly disappointed because there isn't much blood or violence." Producer Carl Mazzocone claimed another reason he ultimately agreed to let Lynch direct the film, besides the fact that she wrote it, was primarily because she is a woman. "It would have been politically incorrect to have a man direct this film," he said. "It is perceived as a horror film even though it isn't, and if people saw a man's name as the director, a lot of women probably wouldn't even give it a chance." He added "It's a provocative film and people are going to walk out either loving it or loathing it."