"the producers of this motion picture have asked me to take this opportunity to say... 'Fuck you'". A slide indicating that the film has been indeed given an R-rating by the MPAA appears for a few seconds (a rare instance of the MPAA rating appearing during a film), after which the movie continues. Parodies The film parodies several slasher and horror films, including Carnival of Souls, Black Christmas, Carrie, Halloween, When a Stranger Calls, The Shining, Friday the 13th and Prom Night. "The Stick" One of the film's oddest aspects is a character called Malvert, a creepy-looking janitor (itself a familiar trope in slasher films). Malvert mumbles, does bizarre things like urinate into wastepaper baskets ("Sometimes Malvert pee red!" being one of the film's more memorable lines) and moves about in a herky-jerky fashion (at film's end, Malvert is revealed to be something of a sophisticate; when Toby informs him that he was a janitor in her dream, he responds, "Absurd!"). Malvert was played by a tall, double-jointed stand-up comedian known only as "the Stick", who made no other films; his only other credit seems to be as a guest appearance in the pilot episode on the 1984 TV series Out of Control. Several online reviews give the film itself a mixed reaction, but praise the Stick's performance. According to an obituary in Corsicana Daily Sun, The Stick's real identity was Patrick Boone Varnell (1941-89), who was born in Lawton, Oklahoma and died at Medical City Hospital in Dallas on May 7, 1989. Filming locations Lamar Consolidated Junior High School in Richmond, Texas – called Lamab in the film (not to be confused with Lamar High School in Houston, Texas which is known for its use in the film Rushmore) - and James E. Taylor High School in Katy, Texas were used for the film's football stadium, as well as for exterior and some interior scenes. The parade scene was filmed in downtown Houston, on Main Street. Additional scenes were filmed on the campus of Texas Southern University, with Hannah Hall (the administration building) used for classroom and hallway shots. Members of TSU's football team were also used in the movie. The 1980 Thomas Jefferson High School Yellow Jackets football team sporting their maroon and gold school colors played the visiting football team in the film. Release One of a group of films directed towards teenaged audiences during the late