Francis Ford Coppola was assisting Roger Corman on the set of The Young Racers in Ireland. Corman allowed Coppola to use the same set, crew and actors Luana Anders, William Campbell and Patrick Magee for this film if he could shoot around the shooting schedule of Corman's film.
Francis Ford Coppola's first Director credit, as "Francis Coppola".
This film was originally going to be titled simply "Dementia." The "13" was added because it was discovered that the title "Dementia" had already been used for a 1955 film.
This line in the film: "Especially an American girl. You can tell she's been raised on promises" influenced the Tom Petty song 'American Girl' in which he sings "She was an American Girl, raised on promises."