The film's original director, Sean MacGregor, was fired after a few weeks of difficult filming, and most of the footage was considered unusable. Much of the final version had to be redone under the direction of David Sheldon several weeks later.
Unknown actress Gail Smale was alleged to be the original director Sean MacGregor's under-aged girlfriend. Her character's nun's habit with rose-colored glasses was partially an attempt to conceal her natural albinism. This film remains her only known credit.
According to legend, the film's original director, Sean MacGregor, spent some time as a patient in a psychiatric ward following his firing from it.
Director Quentin Tarantino named this film as one of his favorites in October of 2020. He said, "Leif Garrett is the leader of these killer kids. And Leif Garrett gives an amazing performance in this film. It's terrific and it's really 'f'-ed up in a big way but that's what makes it great. It blew me away. I was like, wow, this is amazing! I've heard about it forever, because it played the drive-in circuit on the lower half of double features for years. Finally, I watched it, and I was like, wow, this is terrific!".