After filming Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals (1978) and Tough to Kill (1978) in Santo Domingo between May and September 1978, director Joe D'Amato began filming Porno Holocaust, Paradiso blu, Sesso nero, Orgasmo nero, Hard sensation, and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead at the same location in July 1979. The films were then released in Italian cinemas from May 1980 to January 1981. They shared numerous actors, locations and story elements, and reused footage and outtakes from the other films.
Mark Shannon said in interviews that he was hired to have hardcore sex with Annj Goren but wanted nothing to do with her due to her propensity for having unprotected sex with any random person Joe D'Amato would drag off the street for her, as well as for her being a junkie. But D'Amato said he had to or be sued for breach of contract. Shannon said he did it but his heart wasn't in it, which you can tell by his expression during their sex scene. He said he fucked her and then got the hell away from her as fast as he could.
Shot in and around Santo Domingo, it was one of the first cinematically released Italian films containing hardcore pornography.
The title has been seen as a "riff" on Cannibal Holocaust (1980).
According to Marco Giusti, D'Amato told Peter Blumenstock that Bruno Mattei had directed a large part of the film without taking credit; Giusti therefore listed Mattei as uncredited co-director. This information was later considered "completely unfounded" by Andrea Napoli; he stated that Mattei himself had refuted his involvement in the film.