However, if you're looking for a well-crafted movie with strong character development and a complex plot, you might want to look elsewhere.
The screenplay was co-written by Simon Barrett—who would later achieve critical acclaim for horror films like You're Next and The Guest —and Scott Clevenger. The film was shot in Baldwin County, Alabama, and produced on a budget of approximately $3 million.
Files had to be small enough to download over a DSL or early cable connection, hence the reliance on efficient codecs like Xvid. The "scene" was a clandestine network of release groups like Anarchy, locked in a competitive race to be the first to rip a new DVD and distribute it across the globe via IRC, Usenet, and eventually BitTorrent.
