Synopsis

On her seventeenth birthday, popular high school student Liz Purr becomes the victim of a kidnapping prank staged by her three closest friends. When a jawbreaker accidentally chokes her, the girls attempt to conceal the death. Their cover-up grows increasingly unstable as guilt, blackmail, and shifting loyalties threaten the clique's carefully maintained social power.

Factoids & Trivia

• The story was initially conceived as a horror movie. While writing, the premise evolved into a dark comedy about popular girls whose birthday prank goes horribly wrong.

• The title's candy represents the contrast between the bright, sugary image of teenage popularity and the film's violent, morally corrosive subject matter.

• Reagan High School was portrayed by University High School in West Los Angeles. Cafeteria scenes were filmed at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks.

• The diner seen early in the film is Johnie's Broiler in Downey, California, a location that has appeared in numerous other productions.

• The photographs of the four girls used during the opening credits were taken on the first day of filming.

• During the scene in which the girls carry Liz's body upstairs, the actresses genuinely lost their balance and dropped her. The moment was kept in the finished film.

• The film was released in the United States on February 19, 1999. Although it was initially unsuccessful with critics and at the box office, it later developed a cult following.