Cast members actually used the doll ("Brahms") to prank each other on the set. On one occasion, one of the cast members propped the doll up outside of the other actor's bathroom in their trailer to scare them. Upon seeing this, they hurled the doll outside of their trailer and the crew had to repair it and make a replacement doll.
Lauren Cohan played an American nanny traveling to the United Kingdom for her job as a babysitter in the film. Ironically, while Cohan is an American born citizen, she has an English accent since she spent her adolescence in England. She hides her accent in this film.
The main plot is the same in the short film Familia colateral (2007). In both films, a babysitter accepts taking care of a toy to get paid, and strange things begin to happen.
Lauren Cohan signed on to star in the lead role of the film on January 23, 2015, which by then had been retitled The Boy (2016).