Since the film is shot near the Esket Reserve in Western Canada, many people of the First Nation were also involved, including Chief Charlene Belleau who blessed the production.
The movie is inspired by the real concern of global warming unveiling ancient lethal supervira. Numerous different giant vira has already been discovered by scientists in the Siberian permafrost.
During his time as a teacher at the Center for Arts and Technology Director Mark A. Lewis used parts of his screenplay for The Thaw in his Directing the Actor class.
One version of the dvd uses the title "Frozen" instead of "Thaw".
The last line in this film mentions various diseases posing threat to humanity, with SARS being one of them. In this way the movie turned out to be prophetic, as the coronavirus strain that causes SARS has later caused at the very least 7 million deaths, with some sources estimating the true number to be over 30 million.