Future husband James Cameron suggested to Bigelow that she use the ready-made ensemble cast from his recent hit Aliens (1986), and thus Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein all appear in Bigelow's film. Michael Biehn had also appeared in Aliens and was considered, but declined to participate.
According to Bill Paxton, the driver that gives him the finger when he's hitchhiking is played by none other than James Cameron, who had visited the set that day.
Unusual for a vampire movie, the word "vampire" is never mentioned.
According to Lance Henriksen, he prepared for his role of Jesse by coming up with a background for his character and acting it out. The origin story he came up with was that Jesse was in the Confederate navy when he became a vampire. Henriksen painted his hair black with tar, since that was an actual thing seamen did in the 1800's. He then added broken fake nails to make his fingers look like the extensions of his finger bones and went to town at night like that while in character. He managed to scare a waitress in Denny's and a hitchhiker twice his size he picked up on the road one night. The hitchhiker quickly asked to leave the car as soon as they drove up to the first inhabited area, so Henriksen, without revealing that he was just an actor messing with the guy, gave the man all 80 dollars he had on him for being a good sport. Henriksen always jokingly adds that he was lucky, since the hitchhiker could have easily overpowered him in a fight and "make him cry like a baby."
The writer and director both were intent on making a Western but realized that the interest in the Western genre at the time was almost non-existent, so it was recommended that they mix genres. Since the horror genre was in vogue at the time, the two decided to make a Horror Western.