consoled in the knowledge that her death was required by the traditional structures of screenwriting. Cast The film's onscreen credits offer a film-within-a-film credits list for the characters: "Rome" as Director, "One Eye" as Photographer, "Max" as Script, "Buzz" as Music, and "Tess" as Love Interest, followed by onscreen credits for the actors: Tod Thawley as Rome (as Zen Todd) Christian Leffler as One Eye Emmett Grennan as Max Creighton Howard as Buzz Kathleen Macdonald as Tess (as Kathleen Walsh) Fred Dennis as Virgil Morgan Virgil Frye as Sheriff Kareem Oliver as Rodney Kyle Van Horne as Lyle Karen Christensen as Red Hill Waitress Sheri Hellard as Waitress at Fuzzy's Casey Slade as Pastry Face Cop Jon Kinney as Grip Richard T. Smith as Sheriff'S Deputy Judi O'Neal as Sadie Reception Critical reception has been mixed. DVD Talk gave a mostly negative review that opined that the commentary track might be useful for prospective indie low-budget filmmakers, but that the movie itself was "weak" and "tough to sit through". Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times gave a brief but enthusiastic review that called Killer Flick "an outrageous, inspired satire". In his book "The Reality Effect: Film Culture and the Graphic Imperative", author and scholar Joel Black referred to the film as "an over the top black comedy". LA Weekly reviewer Chuck Wilson remarks upon the film's scene where the group's leader and film-within-a-film-director, Rome (played by Tod Thawley), shows attraction for the lead actress "in order to give the movie a 'love interest'" and then apologizes to the rest of his group for his "lousy dialogue". The reviewer felt that director Weidman cut to rehearsals where the actors to be killed off try out various bits of dialog, and in noting the cast agreeing that the film is becoming too "self-referential" s and says so out loud, was astute in "beating the audience to the punch." It was concluded that "Miramax would love these guys." San Francisco Weekly noted "Mark Weidman shows how to graft a grade-Z road movie onto a Brechtian scenario of self-reflexivity and narrative breakdown," and concluded he was able to "make a breathless, funny, inventive film." Releases The film had festival screenings in 1998 and 1999, and was released on DVD by Vanguard Cinema in 2003. The film had theatrical release when the Laemmle Theatres in West Los Angeles showed the film as a midnight