To achieve the gruesome Melting Man monster, makeup effects artist Rick Baker fashioned a slightly over sized skull-shaped helmet for actor Alex Rebar to wear. The piece was painted flesh tone and then was cover by a gooey concoction of syrup and paint. The drippy substance would have to be re-applied for every take of the Melting Man. At the end of each shoot Rebar would have so much of the sticky stuff on him that he would literally have to peel his costume off.
The films budget was so low that the production couldn't afford stock footage of Saturn for its opening scene. Instead public domain stock footage of the sun and a satellite (a moon) was used for the scene where Scorpio V orbits Saturn.
Reportedly, makeup artist Rick Baker created a number of gruesome appliances that were never used in the film because star Alex Rebar refused to wear them.
Famed director Jonathan Demme ("Stop Making Sense (1984)," "The Silence of the Lambs (1991)") has a credited role as Matt Winters.
Rick Baker was originally resistant to working on the movie, feeling he had moved past B horror pictures at this point in his career. Baker threw out a high figure for his work and when producers accepted it Baker came on board.