In the Summer of 1952, RKO reissued this film as a double feature with King Kong (1933). RKO cashed in, as young theatergoers, due to this film's title, were expecting to see a second creature film.
Everyone in town shares some degree of guilt for the deaths, from Jerry bringing the leopard into civilized society to Clo-Clo scaring the leopard, and from the parents who ignored their children to the inadvertent bystanders. William Friedkin stated, "I think this was Lewton's idea that there's a collective guilt in society, that society itself in its shortcomings, in its lack of real compassion for our fellow human beings, is often responsible for their tragic ends."
William Friedkin credits the film as being an inspiration towards Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) in how it follows characters we believe to be the leads only to leave them behind for long stretches as we shift to other characters instead. "They're simply pawns in a greater structure that was at the time completely unpredictable and, therefore, suspenseful."
Val Lewton's production team at RKO was given the titles in advance by the studio heads, and then he and his team were responsible for finding a story and making a movie around that title.