The film was originally meant to take place in Australia on a budget of $17 million, with Kevin Bacon reprising his role, in a wide theatrical release. When this idea approved but only given a budget of $4 million, the script was loosely rewritten to accommodate the budget.
Kevin Bacon and Reba McEntire were both written into the script and expected to return as their characters from the first movie. Reba would decline due to a massive tour she was appearing on at the time, and while Bacon showed interest, he ultimately turned it down to film Apollo 13. Universal Studios was pining for these two to return, and when neither did, the budget was dropped from $17 million to $4 million and production was handed over to the direct-to-video division.
To achieve the infrared view of the shriekers as seen in several scenes,the actors wore red suits and yellow stockings, then were shot in Hi-8 video tape and blown up to 35-mm film, to add an additional grainy effect the post-production video engineers then rendered the faces and bodies in different colors.
The scene with the baby shrieker was created using a full-size shrieker in a large cage making the Shrieker look small, as a consequence no actors could be shown at the same time as the cage and shrieker.
Earl struggles with ostriches at the beginning of the movie while attempting to get them to mate. His difficulty may lie with the fact that both of them are male. Female ostriches are noticeably shorter and grey.
S.S. Wilson: the co-creator of Tremors (1990) and inspiration for the character of Burt Gummer, as the voice of a documentary narrator.