The film coincidentally shares a release date with two films that influenced it: David Cronenberg's body horror masterpiece The Fly (1986) and Francis Ford Coppola's war epic Apocalypse Now (1979), both released on August 15 in their respective years.
The film has been described as Samuel Beckett and Jean-Paul Sartre meet John Carpenter and David Cronenberg.
Some exterior scenes were shot at Sunset Cliffs and a bridge at the Tierrasanta entrance to Mission Trails Regional Park. The bulk was filmed at Gray Area Multimedia, an underground studio in downtown San Diego.
The film's executive producer Kerry Rossall has appeared in two movies that influenced Friend of the World: John Carpenter's They Live (1988) as an actor and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) as an actor and stuntman.