To minimize the use of post-production affects, a body double was used in 95% of the scenes to give the illusion that Michael's soul and corpse were in the same room interacting with one another.
Matthew Dearing's body double in the film is his cousin. Although almost ten years separate them in age, no one can tell in the actual film due to clever camera composition and editing.
Ironic given the films subject matter, death constantly yielded its ugly head during production. The Director of Photography's grandmother passed away the morning principle photography started, a few hours before his call time on set.
A good friend of Tim Mallon's passed away during the first week of production. He had to be released early one day to attend the services. When shooting picked back up the following day, unbeknownst to Tim, the location was the same cemetery he had been at the day before for his friends funeral.
The headstones were created by the directors mom and grandparents. They had no previous art experience on film.