Series creator Justin Bernard Head had tried three times to come up with a concept for an anthology series with multiple directors involved. First attempt was in 2009 with a proposed anthology film called Midnight Horror Theater, but only a segment directed by him titled Blood of the Damned (2010) was made. A second attempt came in 2016 but he had a hard time figuring out what the theme of the series would be and how each episode would tie together. He did write an introductory narration which was used in the series. This show finally came about on podcast for a company called Geek Impulse where he was pressed about any new films he might producing. He threw out a random pitch about wanting to do an anthology series and after the podcast, decided to figure out how to make this show happen.
Both Inanimate and Jennifer's Sin were written after series creator Justin Bernard Head found the series might only have three episodes when other episodes fell through or intended directors had to drop out due to other projects. He wrote both in a two week period to be simple premises that could be shot in one weekend to would rely completely on atmosphere, cinematography, suggestion and (in the case of Inanimate) utilize props to terrifying effect rather than special effects.
Jennifer's Sin was originally meant to be shot in July of 2022 to hopefully premiere the series in fall 2022. However, a scheduling conflict lead to the shoot being pushed back to September of that year. With Vince Nutt's episode More Than Capable not yet being done with filming and Ayrton Carrazco still needing to shoot his, September 2023 was set as the hard-line premiere date.
Vince Nutt was brought onto the series in mid 2021 and pitched a draft of his episode "More Than Capable", which was wildly different from what appeared in the first season of Dark Signals. Originally, the protagonists Stevie and Riely were stopped by a cop in the desert who ends up chasing them upon revealing that he is a wanted murderer. They eventually gain the upper hand on him and reveal they are killers as well. This original script was intended to be shot in July of 2021 in Salton Sea over one weekend. However, the harsh heat at that location which was well over 100 degrees, one light breaking down, and a demanding cast member led to this script not being completed. It took a full year to reset as the actress playing Stevie (Jess Coffman) was in the process of getting married and Vince Nutt wanted to take a new approach to help get the episode completed. Firstly, the location was changed to the woods of Big Bear, the cop character written out completely and the female leads were rewritten to act more on survival instinct when killing as opposed to simply being killers.
The show's host Dr. Midnight went through several iterations during the development of the series. Originally, he was going to be a zombie that was patching into a cable channel. It was eventually decided to make Dr. Midnight a living being. His name came from Captain Midnight, a code name for man who hijacked an HBO signal in 1986. Dr. Midnight's actions, however, were heavily influenced by the Lucky 7 broadcast wherein a man in Syracuse, New York in 1977 aired films and shows which were not yet available for syndication for three days on an unoccupied frequency. The man appeared briefly on the TV wearing a gas mask and noose around his neck. This influenced the gas mask Dr. Midnight dons. This was also a sly nod to the show being produced in 2020 when COVID-19 had the world gripped with paranoia with mask mandates in place and an overall apocalyptic feeling in the air.