the Toronto Festival of Festivals that year. Later, it was shown at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival and Maggie Greenwald was nominated for the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. In the UK, the film opened at the Screen on the Hill in London on February 9, 1990, grossing $8,775 in its opening week. The film was given a limited theatrical release by Cabriolet Films beginning on October 19, 1990 in New York City. It also opened in Los Angeles for a week on December 14, 1990 in order to qualify for Academy Awards consideration. Home media The film was not released onto videocassette in the United States until 1996, when Xenon Entertainment released it onto VHS. In 2014, Films Around the World released the film on a manufactured on demand DVD-R. Reception Critical response Critic Peter Travers, writing for Rolling Stone, called the film "a daring, down-and-dirty thriller." In the Austin Chronicle, critic Marjorie Baumgarten reviewed the film positively, writing the "protagonists and pernicious moral rot are well-captured in Greenwald's film version of The Kill-Off. The milieu is compellingly perverse, and Greenwald and the actors get the seedy tone just right." Critic Dennis Schwartz felt though the film "wasn’t psychologically deep, nor was it morally arresting", it succeeds at "showing a feeling of deep noir malaise", noting "It’s rare that a woman directs a noir film and especially one as hard-boiled as this one." The New York Times was less impressed with the film. Critic Caryn James wrote, "[Thompson's lurid drama] is tossed away by Ms. Greenwald's flaccid script and scenes so badly paced that the actors seem to be holding their breath between lines, waiting for their next cues." Accolades Wins Torino Film Festival: Jury Special Prize, Maggie Greenwald; 1989. Nominations Deauville Film Festival, France: Critics Award, Maggie Greenwald, 1989. Sundance Film Festival: Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, Maggie Greenwald; 1990. Differences from novel In the book, the author never reveals the identity of the murderer, in contrast to the film. The film also spares one of the characters that the book does not, and turns the character into a moral center. References External links The Kill-Off film review by Neil Young 1989 films 1989 independent films American crime drama films American drama films 1980s crime drama films 1980s drama films Films set in New Jersey Films shot in New Jersey Films shot in New York (state) American independent films American