Their burgeoning relationship is threatened by Samuels, who has become fiercely protective of Flo after his wife's death, and killed a number of her previous suitors.

[2] The film was independently distributed; cowriter and co-executive producer, Bill Kemper, came up with the idea for the movie, and provided most of the funding.

It had a low budget of under $10 million;[2] the filmmakers were able to cast Reynolds, who had just appeared in Boogie Nights, because he had not yet received the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination that massively boosted his salary.

Suki Mendencevin was the film's cinematographer, and soprano Custer LaRue and folk group The Baltimore Consort recorded several traditional Appalachian ballads for the soundtrack.

These were effectively test runs; the filmmakers hoped that it would do well enough in the South for them to release it nationally, as other backwoods films, such as Poor White Trash and Girl from Tobacco Row, had done before it.

[8] The Tennessean also noted some plot holes, along with places where the low budget was obvious, but praised the story and Reynolds's performance.

[9] On the film's video release, Entertainment Weekly gave it an F rating, and stated that the movie generated "unintentional laughs".