The Kill-Off
| The Kill-Off | |
|---|---|
Video Cover
|
|
| Directed by | Maggie Greenwald |
| Produced by | Lydia Dean Pilcher |
| Screenplay by | Maggie Greenwald |
| Based on | the novel The Kill-Off by Jim Thompson |
| Starring |
Cathy Haase Loretta Gross Andrew Lee Barrett |
| Music by | Evan Lurie |
| Cinematography | Declan Quinn |
| Edited by | James Y. Kwei |
|
Production
company |
Filmworld International Productions
Palace Pictures |
| Distributed by | Cabriolet Films |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Kill-Off is a 1990 neo-noir written and directed by Maggie Greenwald, based on a 1957 novel of the same name by Jim Thompson. It was an independent film, produced by Lydia Dean Pilcher and shot by Declan Quinn.
The film is set in a small coastal community in New Jersey where the only action in town is a nightclub called The Pavilion. The owner, Pete (played by Jackson Sims), can barely make the payroll so in an effort to bring in more business, he hires a sultry stripper named Danny Lee (Cathy Haase).
Danny Lee's act soon turns the head of Ralph, which is not good news for his bed-ridden wife Luanne (Loretta Gross). Luanne's nasty talent is her gift for gossip, and when she begins to suspect that Ralph has adultery on his mind, she starts spreading more ugly rumors that have just enough basis in fact to stick. Soon things spin out of control and a wave of violence begins.
The Kill-Off was a part of the so-called Jim Thompson revival in the early 1990s. At that time, the film was one of three Jim Thompson novel adaptations to be made into a film within one year. The others were The Grifters and After Dark, My Sweet.
This neo-noir is very darkly filmed by Declan Quinn and at times the images shot of anyone more than a few feet from the camera can be difficult to see. As such, it mirrors the stylistic photography of the film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s.
The filming locations include: The Keansburg Amusement Park, Keansburg, New Jersey; and other locations in New Jersey.
The film received some good press. Critic Peter Travers, writing for Rolling Stone, called the film, "...a down-and-dirty thriller...". And film critic Marjorie Baumgarten liked the film and the direction of Maggie Greenwald and wrote in the Austin Chronicle, "[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."
...
Wikipedia