Producer Martin Erlichman first read the film's source novel when it was in galley form. Erlichman once said that for this movie he wanted to do for hospitals what Jaws (1975) had done to people with the ocean and sharks. He said: "People have a primal fear of the ocean and Jaws titillated that phobia. In a similar manner, [this movie] accents one's primal fears of hospitals. This is an even stronger phobia because a person can always refrain from going into the water, but cannot always avoid the necessity of going into hospital!".
Ed Harris's first film.
George