The idea for this film came from director J.L. Carrozza reading an article and watching an internet video about a girl named Tammy Jung, a young woman obsessed with becoming as obese as possible who has her boyfriend feed her massive amounts of food. Carrozza realized that "it would make a great horror movie" to take the same concept but have a girl be force fed by a man obsessed with her against her will rather than consensually. Carrozza calls the film a "vision of gastronomical Stockholm Syndrome". There was a direct visual reference to Tammy Jung made in the film: a sequence where the female lead Natalie is force fed through a funnel/beer bong.
To create a palpable and highly atmospheric horrific tone for the film, director Carrozza turned to several horror and exploitation films he loved. The biggest influence on the film was the Japanese film Blind Beast (1969) which the plot draws heavily from. Other major influences include Un chien andalou (1929), Peeping Tom (1960), the films of Italian director Mario Bava especially the A Drop Of Water segment from Black Sabbath (1963), the films of John Waters, Alien (1979), Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985), Evil Dead Trap (1988) and a few others. Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985) is not a movie Carrozza is particularly fond but nonetheless considers important and impacting. Timothy's first costume being a samurai outfit is a direct visual homage to this film. The internet videos of How To Basic and Showry, a Korean feminist shock vlogger who makes disturbing comedy videos with food, were also quite influential on the movie's aesthetic.
The film's antagonist Timothy was partially inspired by (in)famous internet figure Christine Weston Chandler. There are a few pieces of art by him hanging on Timothy's wall, along with "anime expansion" art by the artist "Mistystuffer". There is also a picture of the infamous Austrian incestuous sex offender Josef Fritzl, on the wall as well.
As a money saving tactic, the film reuses numerous props from Carrozza's previous productions especially Alison (2015), which the characters can be seen watching in one scene. Carrozza had just finished Alison (2015) so he had many of the props still in his closet and decided to throw as many of them into the film as he could. Among the props reused include: Little Red Riding Hood's katana from Carrozza's short film of the same name can be seen in Timothy's trunk when he throws Natalie into his car; a fair amount of props that the Mad Hatter had in his hoard in "Alison" including the mounted doll head, shrunken heads and whips are in Timothy's room; the March Hare's mascot head he is forced to wear throughout "Alison" is also on the wall and the Red Queen's banner from her throne room is near it; the Hatter's rifle can be seen in the hallway; one of Timothy's costumes is the chain-mail suit worn by the Ace of Hearts; the Cheshire Cat puppet can be seen on the couch with Natalie several times; the rotting corpse found in Timothy's bathtub is a redressed version of the skeleton that Alison is shackled to in the Queen's dungeons; the film's opening and finale features several props from Alison's Hatter scene on the table including the candle holder, skull and toy cymbal monkey.
The lead character Natalie as played by Nicole Barrett was named after Natalie Dormer, Carrozza had been getting obsessed with Game of Thrones (2011) at the time he wrote the script and she was the first name that popped into his head.