"It is the bleak mid-winter in a decaying resort town on the New Jersey seacoast. A few inhabitants struggle to get by in the off-season, their lives interconnected by the miserable secrets which are woven into a web of viciously destructive revelations by a bedridden invalid who spends her days on the telephone. The Kill Off follows a small group of characters trapped in lives of hopelessness and desperation in a setting of wind-swept sand-dunes, peeling paint, seedy bars and a pathetically static midway...The film takes a bleakly romantic view of lower-depths America, aided by the low-key acting by an ensemble of brilliantly cast unknowns and the evocative photography of Declan Quinn. While remaining true to the tone of Jim Thompson's nihilistic fiction, screenwriter-director Maggie Greenwald has strengthened the women characters and changed the ending to offer a glimmer of hope. Greenwald has taken the unusual tack of leaving Hollywood to advance her career. From editing sound on Hollywood features, she has returned to low-budget independent production and quickly established herself as a talented filmmaker with an unusually dark sensibility." -- Kay Armatage, Toronto Film Festival '89