Kelly Nichols got the role of Dee Ann after the first two actresses backed out because they didn't want to do the total nudity. She had no problem being nude on screen because she had spent years as a nude model. This was her first of only two mainstream movie roles. The year after the film was released she was selected Penthouse Pet of the Month in May 1979 and then began a career of making hardcore adult films.
In a 2002 interview Kelly Nichols said she loved being included in the movie poster, especially since the artwork makes her boobs look much bigger than they actually are.
Kelly Nichols took her brothers to see the movie when it was first released even though she is running around fully nude and masturbates in one scene. They saw it at the same theater she worked at as an usher when she was a teen.
The film was marketed as being a dramatization of a true story. According to journalist Linda Gross, the screenplay was loosely based on a string of serial killings in Michigan committed by a man who attacked women using various tools.
This was child star Pamelyn Ferdin's final film role. She did however take on a few minor TV roles after this before taking up a nursing career in 1979. She also later became an animal rights activist. In a 1995 interview she stated that she never wanted to be an actress, her mother made her do it, and the only reason she took this role was because her mother pushed her into it. Afterward, she told her mother she was done with acting.