There was a real video cassette sold in 1986 called Rent A Friend. A lot of the scenes done by Wil Wheaton are direct references to things that happened on the original video from 1986.
When the film screened at the 2020 Grimmfest, jury member and horror writer Preston Fassel loved it so much he attempted to argue the rest of the judges into awarding it almost every prize in the competition, and had to be swayed into considering the merits of other movies that had played. The movie ultimately won Best Actor and Best Screenplay.
There is an additional scene that plays following the credits.
When David plays one of his father's recordings for Lisa, he puts a cassette tape into a boom box labeled with the brand name Curtis Mathes was an American electronics manufacturer started in 1957. Though they had a somewhat prestigious line of TVs in the 50s and 60s, this unit was likely a rebranded cassette player from one of the giant Japanese manufacturers like Matsushita or Pioneer introduced during their financial decline.
In June 2021, Jon Stevenson, Brian Landis Folkins and Jimmy Weber recorded an audio commentary for the Rogue Commentary podcast.