Street Asylum

• 1990
• 1 hr 34 mins
• R

• Watchlist

In this lurid sci-fi actioner a psycho LA police chief has surgeons implant a device into the spines of wounded officers that turns them into lunatic killers who are then assigned to his Scum Quelling Urban Assault Division (SQUAD). After cleaning the streets of slimy crooks, the officers are programmed to destroy themselves. When hard-nosed cop Arliss Ryder is wounded, he too receives the deadly implant, but unlike the others, he and his gal Kristin, a master kickboxer, figure out the plan and work to defeat the villain to save himself and his fellow officers. The film inspired considerable controversy when it first came out because the part of the S&M-loving police chief was played by convicted-conspirator G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate fame. After the film was completed Liddy refused to promote it to the public and later after the story made the national news withdrew all opposition. This bought the film more time in theaters, before it went to video, than it may have actually deserved.