[2] The film stars Liz Renay, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, Edith Massey, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Jean Hill.

[4] Following the murder of her husband, a suburban housewife and her maid agree to be exiled to Mortville, a shantytown ruled by a tyrannical queen regnant.

A cross-dressing policeman arrests the pair and gives them an ultimatum: go to jail or be exiled to Mortville, a filthy shantytown ruled by the evil Queen Carlotta and her treasonous daughter, Princess Coo-Coo.

Eventually, Mortville's denizens, led by Mole, overthrow Queen Carlotta and execute Peggy by shooting a gun up her anus.

Art director Vincent Peranio built the exterior sets for Mortville on a 26-acre farm in Hampstead, Maryland, owned by Waters' friend, Peter Koper.

[6] Production manager Robert Maier recalled the challenges of shooting without adequate facilities, how the cast and crew overwhelmed the farm's septic system, how heavy rains nearly washed away the set, and how "charmed" Waters seemed through it all.

It was Waters' first film with original music, by Chris Lobingier and Allen Yanus, to provide a "cheesy Doctor Zhivago-type score".

[11] Waters had received a copy of Liz Renay's autobiography My Face for the World to See and wanted to offer her a role in the film.

David Chute of The Boston Phoenix said of the film: "In Desperate Living, Waters comes close to creating a work of true trash art.