Main Cast: Michael Moriarty, David Carradine, Candy Clark, Richard Roundtree, Lee Louis, Malachy McCourt
Release Year: 1982
Country: US
Run Time: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Genre pioneer Larry Cohen, who broke new horror ground with the killer-baby hit It's Alive!, takes a stab at the giant-monster scenario with this enjoyable low-budget exercise. The title refers to the winged Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, represented here as a dragon-like flying lizard (thanks to some quaint but amusing stop-motion animation from David Allen), who decides to take up residence in the art-deco spire of the Chrysler Building, taking frequent jaunts in the midday sun to nip the heads off various hapless New Yorkers. The resulting bloody mess confounds detectives Shepard (David Carradine) and Powell (Richard Roundtree), who are already scratching their heads over a series of bizarre ritual murders linked to a secret Aztec cult. Into the picture comes the film's protagonist -- neurotic, sweaty, paranoid crook Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty, in a tour-de-force performance), a two-bit wheel-man with aspirations of becoming a jazz pianist. After a botched diamond heist leads Quinn to Q's lair, his attempts to go straight take a side-turn as he decides to extort from the city an enormous sum in exchange for directions to the monster's nest. A few sneaky deals later, the location falls into Shepard's hands, and he leads a paramilitary assault on the Chrysler Building, where the creature's humongous egg is about to hatch. Rude, edgy, fast-paced, and peppered with witty dialogue (most of which can't be repeated here), Cohen's script retains the spirit of classic monster movies like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, injecting it with tough, gangster-movie moxie. Moriarty's unbelievable performance -- one of three collaborations with Cohen -- finds him chewing acres of scenery as a contemptible, loud-mouthed goon who's too funny to hate; Moriarty also composed and performed two schizophrenic piano numbers for the film. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Review
Larry Cohen's typically odd and witty entry in the world of the creature feature isn't the straight-faced monster mash one might imagine. Instead, it is actually an offbeat character study with a few horror movie trappings thrown in for a bit of B-movie spice. The story might be anchored by the police investigation that leads to the creature mentioned in the title, but its true heart is the strange tale of Jimmy Quinn. This unusual story structure works thanks to an extraordinary performance from Michael Moriarty, whose Method-actor fireworks transform Quinn into a character that is pathetic and poignant all at once. Whether he is bargaining with the mayor's representatives for a "Nixon-type pardon" or refusing to bow to demands, he steals every scene he's in. David Carradine and Richard Roundtree also contribute some inspired work as the two detectives on the case, managing to avoid the usual clichés of such characters by tackling them in a low-key, witty style. On the downside, writer/director Larry Cohen's fast and quick style results in some noticeable rough edges to his work. The fascinating subplot about the modern-day Aztec cult that revives the monster gets lost in the headlong rush to wrap up the story and the hastily assembled effects used to bring the serpent god to life are a hit-and-miss affair. Despite these problems, Q: The Winged Serpent remains an entertaining affair because its take on the genre is genuinely inspired and it is truly difficult for the viewer to guess what intriguingly strange thing will happen next. As a result, Q: The Winged Serpent is an ideal pick for horror fans who can appreciate a new variation on an old genre. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
John Capodice - Doyle; Bruce Carradine - Victim; Ron Cey - Detective Hoberman; Shelly Desai - Kahea; Richard Duggan - Construction Worker; Larkin Ford - Curator; Jennifer Howard - Newscaster; Eddie Jones - Watchman; Fred Morsell; Tony Page - Webb; Larry Pine - Professor; Fred J. Scollay - Capt. Fletcher; Mary Louise Weller - Mrs. Pauley; James Dixon - Lt. Murray; Peter Hock - Detective Clifford; Nancy Stafford - Eyewitness; Bobbi Burns - Sunbather; Ed Kovens - Robbers
Credit
Tim D'Arcy - Costume Designer, Larry Cohen - Director, Armond Leibowitz - Editor, Armand Lebawitz - Editor, Robert O. Ragland - Composer (Music Score), Dennis Eger - Makeup, Fred Murphy - Cinematographer, Larry Cohen - Producer, Paul Kurta - Producer, David Allen - Special Effects, Randall William Cook - Special Effects, Peter Kuran - Special Effects, Steve Neill - Special Effects, Randy Cook - Special Effects, Larry Cohen - Screenwriter
Q (also known as The Winged Serpent and as Q - The Winged Serpent) is a 1982horror filmwritten and directed by Larry Cohen and starring Michael Moriarty, Candy Clark, David Carradine, and Richard Roundtree. The original music score was composed by Robert O. Ragland. The film was marketed with the tagline "It's [sic] name is Quetzalcoatl... just call it Q, that's all you'll have time to say before it tears you apart!" Roger Ebert gave the film 2 and 1/2 stars in his original review but was bursting with praise for Moriarty's performance. He relates the anecdote that, when movie reviewer Rex Reed met Q's producer, Samuel Z. Arkoff, Reed told him "What a surprise! All that dreck--and right in the middle of it, a great Method performance by Michael Moriarty!" Arkoff replied "The dreck was my idea."[1]
The film's premise is that the AztecgodQuetzalcoatl, the "winged serpent", has been resurrected by a cult in modern New York City and is flying about, snatching people off the skyscrapers. Carradine and Roundtree play policedetectives investigating the sudden rash of suspicious deaths, disappearances and dismemberings. Meanwhile a petty criminal (Moriarty), on the run after a failed robbery, accidentally discovers the creature's lair and tries to blackmail the city into paying for the information.
Q is laced with Cohen's trademark throwaway humour. Confronted with the mysterious death of a window cleaner, a detective reasons "maybe his head got loose and fell off", and later someone speculates that the monster may have come to the Big Apple because "New York is famous for good eating".
The movie was shot on location in and around the Chrysler Building and uses the actual interior of the building's cone as a primary set; astonishingly, the inside of the cone resembles an unfinished attic, with two-by-fours on the floor.
Like Cohen's earlier God Told Me To, Q notes the similarities between gods and monsters; at one point Carradine's character speculates that the only real difference between the two is that monsters can be killed.
