Born from a simple directive—"We need to shoot something in the snow"—this twisty thriller with a supernatural edge was penned by Hank Della.

The production was a race against time and temperature. With Tahoe experiencing a historic snowfall, Daryl Della rushed the project into production to capture the visuals before the melt began. This accelerated pre-production schedule—mere weeks with almost no prep—was a major point of friction for Michael Martin, who initially resisted producing the film under such chaotic conditions.

The role of Stokes—the pragmatic driver ultimately played by Gino Vigil—was originally offered to Chris Ross. In January 2017, Daryl emailed Ross the script hoping to re-team after A Lovely Place to Die. Ross’s response was brutally honest: he turned it down, calling the story "half-baked" and criticizing the lack of character motivation and the "uninteresting" twist.

Ross’s rejection opened the door for Gino Vigil to step in. This casting swap became a running joke within the company, as Hank Della frequently confused Ross and Vigil for one another, a blurring of identities that solidified Gino’s place in the recurring troupe.

The shoot's logistics inadvertently deepened the rift in the partnership. Daryl, Ray Revello, and Kirsten Della arrived in the morning as scheduled to begin the arduous task of clearing the location. Mitch Martin arrived that evening, having picked up cinematographer Daniel Cruz from the airport. Michael Martin, however, did not arrive until very late in the evening. This meant he completely missed the grueling labor of shoveling the driveway—a physical exemption that did not go unnoticed by the shivering crew.

A critical component of the film’s gritty realism came from the return of Josh and Sierra Russell. Having previously collaborated with the team, the Russells trekked up to the frozen location not just as technicians, but as trench-mates. They were responsible for the film’s visceral practical effects, including the blood splatter in the snow and the haunting "frozen corpse" makeup for Ray Revello’s hallucination sequence. Working in sub-freezing temperatures that caused cameras to fail, Josh and Sierra managed to apply intricate prosthetics and gore effects without the luxury of a studio trailer, proving themselves to be as hardy and dedicated as the core crew.

The film’s most delicate stunt involved no stunts at all. Daryl needed a hero car, specifically his grandfather Henry T. Della’s prized Cadillac. He granted permission only on the strict technicality that "no one drives it." Daryl honored the letter of the law, if not the spirit. The crew loaded the Cadillac onto a flatbed trailer, which Mitch Martin then drove endlessly around the block. Gino Vigil sat behind the wheel of the Cadillac, "driving" without the engine ever turning over.

The freezing conditions wreaked havoc on both gear and cast. The Panasonic GH4 cameras were so cold they shut down, forcing the crew to rubber-band handwarmers to the battery compartments just to keep them rolling. In the chaos, a settings error led to half the movie being accidentally shot in 1080p instead of the intended 4K.

The physical toll was even higher. Ray Revello, trudging through the snow in costume, famously threw up blood in the drifts, casually dismissing it as "too much pizza sauce." The shoot concluded with a rowdy wrap party at the Tahoe casinos that spilled back into the house, resulting in yet more vomit that required a morning cleanup.

The Dollars & Donuts Showcase event in December 2017 wasn't just about films; it marked the realization of Daryl Della’s lifelong ambition to become a comic book publisher. To accompany the premiere, attendees received a physical comic featuring a four-page prequel to Shadows in the Snow. Scripted by Hank Della, the story was illustrated by Chilean artist Diego Toro. This project marked the beginning of a prolific, decade-spanning collaboration, with Toro eventually becoming the definitive visualist for the entire Dollars & Donuts character library.

When Daryl revived the comic series for Dollars & Donuts Showcase Vol. 2 in 2023, the volume included a remastered version of the original prequel, alongside a brand-new 10-page adaptation of the film itself, allowing the story to live on in print.