The home used for the Bellows' House is the Fairbanks mansion located in the small town of Petrolia in southern Ontario, Canada.
The poster art is based on the story Harold, which is featured in the third book.
While Stella is first going through the book of stories, several stories from the Scary Stories book series can be seen such as The Cat's Paw, The Attic, and The Wendigo.
Albinism is a double-recessive genetic trait, which means that Sarah Bellows had to inherit it from both of her parents. Given its rarity and the relatively small population of 19th century Pennsylvania, the twisted problems of the Bellows family may have included incest, though the marriage of first cousins at the time was also not uncommon.
Auggie's costume, as continually explained by him, is not a clown, but a pierrot. Pierrot is a stock character of mime and the comedia dell artes. Pierrot is a white faced character played without a mask, who is usually cast as a servant with unrequited love for a character named Columbine. Pierrot is usually the butt of jokes, who plays pranks on main characters, and is often called the sorrowful jokester. In addition, the white makeup of Pierrot is the inspiration, in part, for the modern white-faced clown.