The film suffered severe cuts by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and as a result most of the murders occur off-camera and feature little to no gore or violence. Because of this, the filmmakers edited the film in such a way that the murders seem to happen immediately after each other in quick succession. When the film was originally shot, more time had passed between each murder, which included special effects and on-screen violence. Ironically, the promotional material released feature several shots of the excised deaths, including Pam (Deborah Hancock) getting skewered by a trident and Virgil (Jeff Pustil) with his hand chopped off.
Shot in October 1984 and shelved until 1986. It received a limited theatrical release (and only made an unconfirmed total of $900, from 5 theatres) before being released on VHS by Key Video.
When released in 1986 the title was changed from "The April Fools" to "Killer Party" because the distributors feared that it would be confused with the film April Fool's Day (1986), also released around that time. It was also advertised as "Fool's Night" for a brief period after filming was complete.
When Sherry Willis-Burch originally auditioned, Viva was a much smaller part of the script and was the first character to die. When she won the role she was surprised to see the script had been re-written, Vivia's role expanded, and her character made it to the finale.