In an interview published in "Femme Fatales" magazine, vol.5 n°4, October 96, Adrienne Barbeau reveals that the production could only afford her for one day's work, so she ended up doing 17 pages of dialogue in that time.
One of the few films to be able to start production during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike as it already had Writer's Guild approval on a finished script.
This film is the source for the song "Piranha Women of the Avocado Jungle of Death" by Christine Lavin.
Author Daryl F. Mallett was an extra in this film.
Several of the 'college campus' scenes early in the movie were shot in and around various buildings at the University of California at Riverside (UCR): the outdoor scene in which the expedition is planned was filmed in the north courtyard of Olmsted Hall; the lecture hall scenes were filmed in the (unnamed) Physics building; the academic office scene was filmed in the offices of the Anthropology department; and the scene with the jeep driving under the wavy awning was filmed at the front of the Tomas Rivera Library, UCR's central academic library. The pool deck scenes were shot at an apartment complex near the campus which was later purchased by the university.