Long-time collaborator Ryan Samul worked closely with Mickle on the cinematography. They planned out the scenes in advance and used 3D graphics to visualize difficult shots. Cold in July was the first time Mickle worked with an editor instead of performing the job by himself. In an interview, he said that tight deadlines forced him to delegate the duties to a like-minded collaborator. He described it as "a weird experience" and an experiment. Mickle said that he never before had to cut scenes from his films during editing, but Cold in July was "a constant balance of shifting things, removing sub plots, and putting them back in different places." The score was composed by Jeff Grace. Mickle and Grace had collaborated on several films previously, and they had earlier planned what kind of score they wanted for Cold in July. It was influenced by John Carpenter's scores. Samuel Zimmerman of Fangoria also describes an influence from Sam Peckinpah's 1980s work. Lansdale's daughter, musician Kasey Lansdale, appears on the soundtrack.
