In an interview director Robert Martin Carroll explained that there were three moral lessons behind the film. First, "someone doesn't deserve your love just because they say they love you." Second, "if there is good in a person it will eventually come out." Third, "once you've messed up, unlike most movies, there is no real happy ending. You'll always be a bit off."
Screenwriter Graeme Whifler developed the story from a tale told to him by some bikers who lived in his neighborhood. They told him the true account of a kidnapped child who was raised by an Indiana car thief who tortured the child and trained him to be a killer.
Brad Dourif once referred to the movie as "the first real heavy-metal fable." He admitted that he didn't understand the movie, yet he was drawn to its strangeness.
David Carradine once called the movie a cross between Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Bringing Up Baby (1938) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).