Vice Squad

1982 Directed by Gary Sherman

On the street, the real trick is staying alive.

An unlikely Hollywood hooker helps a detective set a trap for a mutilator pimp.

Season Hubley Gary Swanson Wings Hauser Pepe Serna Beverly Todd Joseph Di Giroloma Maurice Emanuel Wayne Hackett Nina Blackwood Sudana Bobatoon Lydia Lei Kelly Piper Michael Ensign Grand L. Bush Jonathan Haze Robert Miano Stack Pierce Barbara Pilavin Stan Ross Cheryl Smith Fred Berry Nate Esformes

Alternative Titles

Plantão Policial, La descente aux enfers, Nachtratten, Escuadra antivicio, Nattens hårde halse, La jauría del vicio, Poliisipiiri Vice Squad, Vice Squad: Descente aux enfers, Police station: turno di notte, Escuadrón del vicio, Obyczajówka, Brigada do Vício, Полиция нравов

mystery drama crime action thriller

97 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by nathaxnne (hiatus) ★★★★★ 8

less a film than a turbo-boosted lateral toilet snake wending and gouging and boring through every hourly fleabag motel in early eighties Los Angeles, death walking terror of every lurid partially dismembered i-got-one-for-you cop war story dragged out over the bar at close stitched into a neon slime fake i.d. frankenstein's monster of true crime magazine covers & ground molar dust
Vice Squad isn't going to ask your name and wouldn't remember if it did.
Vice Squad doesn't want what is best for you even when it says it does and tells you this time is different.
Vice Squad is going through your underwear and sock drawer when you are in the bathroom and you think this is happening but Vice…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★ 6

75
Pure, uncut sleaze. What a trip.
Review by Sean Baker 4

Watched Shout Factory's Collector's Edition Blu-ray. Fantastic presentation.
Bonus Features
- Audio Commentary With Director Gary Sherman And Producer Brian Frankish
- Tracking The Beast – An Interview With Actor Gary Swanson
- Of Poltergeist And Neon Lights – An Interview With Director Gary Sherman
- Hollywood Magic – An Interview With Producer Brian Frankish
- The Roots Of Reality – An Interview With Actress Beverly Todd
- Catching A Killer – An Interview With Actor Pepe Serna
- Princess Driver – An Interview With Actor Michael Ensign
- Hollywood Streetwalking – A Look At The Locations
- Audio Commentary With Director Gary Sherman
- Theatrical Trailer
- Radio Spots
- TV Spots
- Still Galleries – Poster And Lobby Cards, Publicity Stills, Press Kit
Review by Ian West ★★★★★ 4

Gary Sherman’s scuzz filled cum soaked grime crime L.A. filthfest with crazy-eyed show no mercy urban cowboy pimp Wings Hauser steamrolling over everything in his path. Criminals... the Law... it’s all the Wild West as far as Vice Squad goes—drowning in the neon slime.
Review by WraithApe ★★★★ 12

Everbody's swimming in the neon slime
Wings Hauser's vocal on the opening theme - the perfect intro to a luminous trawl through the sleazy darkness of LA's underbelly. As well as theme song duties, Hauser also stars as homicidal pimp Ramrod, who terrorizes the city's sex workers like a cowboy from hell. When we're first introduced to his character via a phone call from Princess to her friend Ginger, holed up, cowering and afraid in a motel room, it seems like it's just going to be a sub-plot, but after his beating leaves Ginger laid out on a slab in the city morgue, it becomes a personal vendetta. The classic cop-tied-to-the-job, Tom Walsh (a great, stoic turn from Gary Swanson…
Review by Joe Lynch ★★★

One of the grimiest, most outrageous movies I’ve seen in a while, #SleazeCore to the MAX. Wings Hauser is The Terminator Pimp. Seriously.
Review by Waldo ★★★★★ 7

One of my all time favorite films. Wings Hauser is the deadliest pimp ever on screen. He's Ramrod. A true cowboy out running the sleaziest streets of Hollywood. Ramrod is wanted for the beating death of a prostitute so the vice squad needs the help of another prostitute named Princess to get him. Princess is played by the volatile and sexy Season Hubley. A shame she was little seen after this great performance. The vice squad cops are great, led by Gary Swanson in an equally powerful performance. Ramrod escapes and he's off into the night looking to get even. A race against time between this 3 characters coming together for a bloody, violent, magnificent climax.
Review by Patrick Pryor ★★★★½ 3

Wings Hauser plays such a scene whipping disgusting mad dog of a villain, he actually made me yell at the screen for the first time in a long time. Now I understand when cinejerks get excited about the words "Wings Hauser" and "movie" in the same synopsis.
Aside from a memorable monster cowboy pimp named "Ramrod," I also enjoyed all the outrageous, almost cartoonish, depictions of grubby Sunset Strip street life: dogs in sunglasses, leather daddies, drag queens with two tone dyed hair, pimps decked out in feather caps, bald eagle face tatoos. All set to a song about "Neon Slime" sung by Wings Hauser! Vice Squad immediately sucked me in and kept me tense and uneasy until the bitter greaseball end. I hope theaters charged half-price admission for this movie in 1982, because patrons would only need the edge of their seats!
Review by RetroMovieNerd ★★★★½

Elderly Client: "I want to suck your toes."
Princess: "Let me go wash up."
Elderly Client: "That won't be necessary!"
Vice Squad is an unflinching glimpse into the dark, neon lit, splashy streets of Los Angeles in the early 1980s. There is some subtext to the story, as a group of prostitutes gather at their favorite bar to lament the fact that no one wants straight sex anymore, and that people have gone too far into the realm of the perverse. There are a couple of darkly comic scenes that prove how we, as a society in the modern world, view sex not just as the means of procreation, but also as a twisted game we like to play. Sex…
Review by Kaliofthedolls ★★★★★ 14

Okay so I have to start by explaining that you should welcome Nightdreams to Letterboxd and give him a follow. This guy, I mean I've never met him, I just have this friend Andrew, better known as Tuna, and he found this guy and stans for him pretty hard and if you surf his instagram you will understand why. Dude is just unreal he's like somehow lifted straight outta the early 80s and is just living his best life, working at a sex shop, playing bass, wearing the fuck out of 80s clothes and a mullet kissed by the gods. (Also can we talk about his Dad's BDE?)
Right so when Tuna posted a PSA to the Crabs that he…
Review by Carlo Carlo 2

Wings Hauser is a fucking wild animal on the loose and the most terrifying part is that I couldn't tell you whether it's an act; and with the kind of sober B-movie sleaze this is you buy it even more.
Review by Evan ★★★★★ 7

“Jesus, man, the wombats are out tonight. I mean whores, f----ts, pimps - and hustlers, junkies, drag queens and freaks, man! This city sucks!”
Sort of like After Hours meets The Exterminator or any number of other 80s urban sleazefests. Wings Hauser sings the theme song and gives a ferocious, white-knuckled performance as Ramrod - the sort of pimp who has no less than three giant portraits of fat Elvis in his apartment. Season Hubley is also great, with a performance that’s pretty remarkably similar to Kathleen Turner’s in Crimes of Passion, which came out two years later. So problematic, but yet so good.

Recent reviews

Review by Darren Gay ★★★

Not great. But not boring. 80s "gritty" life on the streets. Wings Hauser steals the show as Ramrod. Of course he does.
Review by slightlydazed ★★★

For Fans of: One Time Popular VJ Nina Blackwood, The Politics of Streetwalking on Hollywood Blvd in 1982, Actresses forced to say lines like, "But I love you, Ramrod." Unhealthy Transactional Relationships, Sub-Hagar Exhortations on the Soundtrack, Another Key Line: "You're like a thoroughbred, baby - we're gonna ride the Preakness." Sleaze, Violence, Constant Invasion of Personal Space, Theme Song Sung By Ramrod (aka Wings Hauser) and is called "Neon Slime".
Review by Ryan Mahoney ★★★½

A sleazy good time.
Review by 𝖂𝖎𝖑𝖑 ★★

“Blink your eyes, motherfucker, and you’ll die in the dark!”
Review by Phranc ★★½

Wings Hauser cranks up the sleaze meter to 10 as a psychotic pimp named Ramrod. Unfortunately the rest of the movie can't keep pace with his deranged performance.
Review by ayoxo ★★

Average story. Amateurish dialogue. Cool aesthetics
Review by Kendall Beck ★★★★½

This whole movie is an argument for legalization of sex work in America wrapped in a intense sleezy thriller.
Wings Hauser gives one of the most terrifying performances on screen.
Review by Thomas Hortian ★★★★

Dreckiger Trip durchs nächtliche Los Angeles. Bordsteinschwalbe Princess hat wohl die übelste Nacht ihres Lebens, denn ihre Freundin Ginger versteckt sich vor ihrem Zuhälter Ramrod. Und während sie mit deren Dope erwischt wird, kloppt Ramrod Ginger tot. Nun zwingt sie Bulle Walsh sie dazu, Ramrod verkabelt ein Geständnis zu entlocken. Das klappt zwar recht gut, doch befreit sich Ramrod auf der Fahrt zum Revier dem Gewahrsam und nun auf Rache sind. Princess, die sich dies Nacht mit besonders üblen Freiern herumschlagen muss, weiß nichts von der ihr drohende Gefahr. Eine in Neon getauchte Jagd durch die Nacht beginnt. Das ist nicht immer geschmackssicher und oftmals moralisch fragwürdig, kommt aber sehr authentisch rüber, spannend ist es allemal. Wings Hauser ist toll als psychopathischer Ramrod, doch als Sänger, der das Titellied "Neon Slime" zum besten gibt, scheint er schrecklich. Wer auf filmische Trips durch Großstadtnächte steht, wird auch hiermit viel Freude haben.
Review by j__guerrero ★★★★

This movie was as wild as I had hoped it would be. Took a chance and bought this for the retail price on Shout Factory and I’m really glad it did not disappoint. It takes place in the early 80’s, during the late night hours of a Friday night in the streets of Hollywood Boulevard. Not only is it full of grime and an all out sleazefest, but it also ventures into being one of the most unique displays of cat and mouse. The Vice Squad trying to track down an destructive pimp, while the pimp is trying to chase down a prostitute that did him wrong. There’s some pretty crazy scenes and some outlandish dialogue lol. There’s some absolutely…
Review by Kaliofthedolls ★★★★★ 14

Okay so I have to start by explaining that you should welcome Nightdreams to Letterboxd and give him a follow. This guy, I mean I've never met him, I just have this friend Andrew, better known as Tuna, and he found this guy and stans for him pretty hard and if you surf his instagram you will understand why. Dude is just unreal he's like somehow lifted straight outta the early 80s and is just living his best life, working at a sex shop, playing bass, wearing the fuck out of 80s clothes and a mullet kissed by the gods. (Also can we talk about his Dad's BDE?)
Right so when Tuna posted a PSA to the Crabs that he…
Review by NightDreams ★★★★★

One of the greatest films of all time! Wings Hauser’s performance as Ramrod is legendary!
Review by Dusty Lang ★★★★

Well this is one hell of a sleaze fest. Watching this makes me realize how lucky my father was to have seen this and all of the other 80s grindhouse classics on 42nd street. You will just never get something this nasty in the theater again. For me, the film oscillates from being a terrifying piece of exploitation and an absurd comedy about a hooker who can’t catch a break. Honestly, it works very well on both fronts. The comedy lands most of the time, with one scene towards the end of the film making me bust my gut. Wings Hauser is the real draw though because he is frighteningly good as the mutilator pimp, Ramrod. He is less of a man and more of a terminator, often times reminding me of the pimp version of Maniac Cop. Not much else to say. Great exploitation for anyone who loves the genre.