cult film freak: WINGS HAUSER, GARY SWANSON & SEASON HUBLEY IN 'VICE SQUAD'

Wings Hauser in VICE SQUAD Year: 1982 Rating: ****

Director Gary Sherman's VICE SQUAD combines three genres: involving a revenge-driven psychopath body-count/horror as Wings Hauser's killer pimp Ramrod murders hookers leading to the one that ratted him out, alongside an edgy drama/expose on the seedy prostitution nightlife, and what kind of strange customers are put up with...

The latter involving central character Season Hubley as a hooker with a heart of gold, and most importantly a young daughter, both who... after Hubley's talked into setting up friend Nina Blackwood's killer by character-actor cop Gary Swanson... becomes a vengeance-driven target that he has to protect...

Wings Hauser in VICE SQUAD

Making up the third genre in police-procedural thriller featuring sporadic arrests and interrogations tightly connected to the search for the demented Wings Hauser...

Who was actually a soap opera actor (son of a blacklisted screenwriter), finally given the chance to go completely over-the-top but without being campy: save for his screeching vocals on the opening and closing novelty track Neon Slime (sounding as if The Cookie Monster joined a punk rock band)...

Gary Swanson and Season Hubley in VICE SQUAD

Eventually, B-director Gary Sherman's multi-tier exploitation (with mainstream-quality cinematography) becomes a race-against-time action flick in 11th hour scenes paling to the more slow-burn and suspenseful moments leading up...

Involving the driven cop, the crazy killer and a prostitute in peril: giving Season Hubley (who stole scenes from George C. Scott as a streetwalker in HARDCORE) a chance to wield the only genuine character-arc, balancing street-smart-bravado with deer-in-headlights vulnerability: all reactions to Hauser's scene-stealing, tour-de-force antagonist.