The movie is based on a book with the same title "Down a Dark Hall" by Lois Duncan. The hit horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) was also adapted from a Lois Duncan novel.
Isabelle Fuhrman, who plays Izzy, was originally chosen to star in the remake of Suspiria. The latter is another film where young women begin to suspect that the school they attend has sinister secrets.
When a character holds a zippo, she moves a brow in reference to the zippo in Cortes' 'Buried'. In fact, it's the very same lighter.