Wissenswertes

In one scene, Steven Penny plays Kim a recording of a crash which destroyed a $2000 camera belonging to the National Film Board of Canada. This actually happened to John Paizs while he was filming his short film, Springtime in Greenland (1981), and the audio recording is from that crash. Later, when Kim's parents are looking at photos of the fictional crash, they are also the actual photos taken after police arrived.

There were often no more than three crew members on set, and sometimes only John Paizs himself.

The poster for Crime Wave (depicting Steven Penny at his typewriter) was actually painted by John Paizs himself, who also wrote, directed and starred in the movie.

Many of the cast seen in Crime Wave are actually friends and family of John Paizs.

The film was released on video under the title "The Big Crimewave" to avoid confusion with the Sam Raimi film Die Killer-Akademie (1985).