Explosion is a blast on film

B-horror crew will kill for an A

TRIVIA

• The working title for the film was "Venganza Azteca", which translates to the final title "Aztec Revenge".


• Most of the interiors and all exteriors for the Vartheta Mu fraternity were filmed at an actual fraternity house on campus.


• The fraternity space in which the luchadores were examined and held was filmed in the attic in Jesse Hall in the same space that was used for the Twin photo-shoot in the first film.


• The name of the fraternity in the script derives from an obscure symbol (Vartheta) from a text-processing language and from the initials of the university at which the film would be made (MU).


• The interior and exterior scenes for the wrestling venue were filmed at the Hearnes Center on campus.


• Dr. Kenneth Schafermeyer was the on-set physician for the film and also appeared in a scene as the site physician. In the first film he was also the on-set physician and appeared briefly in the audience for one of the wrestling matches at the Missouri Theatre.


• The interiors and exteriors for the sorority house were filmed at the Conley House on campus. This was the same location used for La Torcha's house in Academy of Doom.


• The film was financed with $20k provided by the University's Interdisciplinary Innovation Fund.


• The previous two films used the Sony CineAlta HD camera, which was state-of-the-art at the time. This film used a Canon 5D Mark II consumer camera that was customized to use prime lenses by the newly-hired Director of the IT program.


• The first two passes of post-production audio work were done by two sound design classes at Webster University in St. Louis.


• Stephens College also assisted with some aspects of post-production for the film.


• World-renowned Spanish composer, Anna Cazurra, was hired to score the film. She represented the film at its world premiere in Madrid in 2015.


• The jet pack in this film was created by Karen Stix. It was non-functional, so a visual-effect flight sequence had to be created in post.


• The car explosion was filmed at the Columbia Fire Training Center, which is the same location used for the flamethrower sequence in Academy of Doom.


• The ninjas were portrayed by an experienced team of parkour and martial arts experts from St. Louis.


• The ninja fight sequence begins on top of the Tiger Building (aka Tiger Hotel), then moves to an alley in downtown Columbia, and then ends on top of a campus parking garage.


• Most of the extended action sequence involving the ninjas had to be scrapped when one of them struck his head while practicing a flip. Dr. Shafermeyer attended to the head wound (with help from Jeff and Kathy) until an ambulance arrived. The injured ninja received stitches but was otherwise fine and was able to visit set on the next day of filming.


• A styrofoam model of the Aztec Chief's head was created for use in a couple of scenes. Unfortunately it shrank over time and became unusable so Jeff had to dig through storage in a crawl space beneath the engineering building to retrieve the prop head from the first film.


• The initial battle between Mil and the Aztec Chief was filmed in the steam and power maintenance facilities in the basement of Jesse Hall.


• The final exterior battle between Mil and the Aztec Chief was filmed on the roof of Lafferre Hall, the main engineering building.


• Osmium is the heaviest chemical element and was used for the name of the production company for the first film. Aztec Revenge was a smaller-budget sequel to that film, so "Tritium Productions" was chosen as the production company name because tritium is the heaviest isotope of the smallest chemical element.


• The prison escape scene was filmed at the closed prison in Jefferson City. After filming ended at the location, Jeff took some of the participants to the adjacent location used in the first film for the final battle between Mil and the Mummy. The Mummy's throne and almost everything else was still there exactly as it had been left years earlier.