In a 2018 interview with Dread Central, Michael Tully spoke about the challenges of getting this type of horror movie made: "It took a long time to write... I knew what the movie would feel like. Like it's not specifically horror or graphic, but that sense when I was younger, watching Bad Ronald (1974) or a movie that just felt unsettling. Like more psychological thriller than horror... Now the hook of the film is that it's based on an urban legend of a haunted painting. That didn't come in until like the 15th draft. I could probably make 10 different versions of this movie that don't even look alike... It took about 3 or 4 years, and trying to get enough money. When you're making an original movie that in the 3rd act, it doesn't go like torture porn or Saw (2004), it goes like Andrei Tarkovsky and Ingmar Bergman, that's NOT a recipe for people wanting to throw money at you. But it was sticking to our guns and I felt like that was what I wanted to do."