Based on the short film The Ghost of Coupeville Middle School, 29 Footsteps expands the premise as a young girl haunts a high school and its unsuspecting students and staff.

 

Back in 1937, a young girl wrote a deep dark secret in her diary. One day at school, some bullies stole her journal and hid it in the bathroom. When the young girl is told where her journal was hidden, she prays that no one discovered her secret. But when she runs down the stairs to the first floor, she trips and falls to her death.

 

Now in Present Day, two teachers and five students are staying after school one late Friday evening... only to discover that they are not alone. The little girl from 1937 has been stalking them and she will do anything to keep them from discovering the secrets within her diary; leading to horrific results! This is the ghost story that your parents didn't want you to hear...

 

• The main plot of the movie takes place in one afternoon. Actual filming took nine months.
• This was Michael Loyd's first horror film that he wrote and directed.
• The journal used in the film is an authentic journal made in 1937, which was owned by a real girl named Mary Crider, the same name of the ghost in the film.
• Editing started almost immediately after initial filming started. When the editing was almost finished, the computer that the film was on had crashed and all work was lost. It is reported that Director Michael Loyd was so angry, he threatened to never complete the project. Editing resumed four months later, after Michael Loyd had time to "cool down from the project."
• Because of the great time span from the start of filming to the end of filming, the weather changes drastically from scene to scene. In the movie, it rains, the sun is setting, the wind blows, and it even snows. Director Michael Loyd explains this discontinuity by saying "the ghost is able to control the weather. Besides, it helps highten the surrealism and intense atmosphere of the film."
• Angeline Marie Fox was originally casted as Judy, with her real-life boyfriend playing the part of Alex. As it turned out, the boyfriend was camera shy and the scene was never filmed. She was recasted to her current role of Kari, and two new people were casted to play the parts of Judy and Alex.
• Reid Gerardi and Danielle McCormick were dating in real life during the time of their scenes together.
• In the scene where Kari is speaking with Mr. Bryson, her calculator's LCD screen has the number 29 on it.
• In the scene where Mary spits in Mr. Bryson's water, the white board has a bunch of 29's written in green and red on the white board. That shot was one of the last shots to be filmed, and takes place between two other shots filmed very early in production.
• Lisa Kurtz was originally casted as one of three bullies. She was unavailable during the filming of her scene, so only two bullies ended up in the 1937 hallway scene. Later, she was recasted into the bigger role of Julie. The character of Julie was never actually in the final script. It was a last-minute decision made by Michael Loyd because Kurtz wanted so badly to be in the film.
• The hallway scene was originally much different than what was put into the film. In the script, Kari was alone in the hallway and she was attacked by the ghost. The original scene explained that Kari was an ancestor of one of the bullies that teased the ghost back when she was alive. It is said that Lisa Kurtz wanted so badly to be in the film, that director Michael Loyd rewrote that scene to include her. Michael Loyd claims this is his favorite scene in the entire film, despite the important plot information being left out. The scene took 19 takes.
• The dungeon scenes were filmed outside, during the coldest day of the year. During the dungeon scenes, it was so cold, that director Michael Loyd's hands began to crack and bleed from holding the camera with no gloves on.
• When Mr. Crider asks Mary how she gets rid of her journal toward the end of the film, she explains that she burned it. The original ending in the script called back the main characters of the film to stand together in the hallway, and look at Mary as she burned her journal. Another draft had Mary standing on top of the school, burning it as the others watched her from a hill. One draft had her throwing the journal off a cliff. The ending that is now in the film is a combination of these elements that "allow a sequel to be made if need be."