Kelli Maroney improvised the Uzi line when the weapon jammed for real. Director Thom Eberhardt told the cast to react to any unexpected occurrences in character, since time and budget were tight and they needed to avoid retakes.
When cheerleader Samantha Belmont (Kelli Maroney) is playing at the radio station as a disc jockey, she says that she is taking requests from "all you teenage mutant comet zombies." This was the working title of the film.
The scenes of an empty Los Angeles were filmed in the morning on normal business days. The shots of the barren city were done quickly while the traffic was held up at stoplights.
The movie theater featured in the beginning of the movie is the historic El Rey Theatre at 5515 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90036.
The two police officers who are seen riding motorcycles in Samantha's nightmare were actually location cops who worked on the movie stopping traffic so filming can be done.