To prepare for his role Burt Culver walked over 200 miles from Gary, Indiana to Davenport, IA alone just prior to the start of filming. This is the distance his character Jonathan had traveled before the start of the story. With his long beard and fingernails, one café owner refused to let him pay for his meal thinking that he was homeless. He left money under his plate and later received an email from the café owner when she saw a news article about the film.
The abandoned house that the main characters occupy belongs to a friend of the director. The house is caught in a dispute between owners and has been left unoccupied for a while. All of the broken furniture and debris in the house was already there so very little staging was necessary.
Actor Thomas Ely Sage came up with the title "To Survive" while talking to writer/director Stephen Folker.
Included as one of the bonus movies on the 2017 "7 Bonus Movies" DVD release of Slipstream (1989).