Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 22
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 7
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 3
liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 2,587
Movie Info
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
Sep 8, 1982 Limited
Nov 25, 2003
Cast
-
Michael Moriarty
Jimmy Quinn -
Candy Clark
Joan -
David Carradine
Detective Shepard -
Richard Roundtree
Sgt. Powell -
Malachy McCourt
Police Commissioner -
Lee Louis
Banyon -
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 -
-
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
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All Critics (23) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (7) | DVD (13)
Cohen's obviously having fun with the cheesy clay animation, and Michael Moriarty delivers an inspired, whacked-out performance as a small-time operater who tries to turn the monster into his own private bonanza, but the rest... is disengaged and sloppy.
We have no hesitation in awarding Oscars all round.
Top CriticThe only movie in which you may ever see a gnawed, bloody skeleton wearing a gold charm bracelet.
Cohen and his crew soak the picture in Big Apple atmosphere, and Carradine is disarmingly relaxed as the wisecracking detective. Yet it's Moriarty who really sparks the proceedings with his offbeat characterization.
While Q won't give anyone nightmares, there's a throwback charm to it that honors Japanese monster movies more authentically than an expensive Hollywood production ever could.
They don't make 'em like this anymore, and that's a shame. It's one of the best grindhouse-type pictures of the '80s.
...an inspired bit of madness from exploitation writer/director Larry Cohen...
Q works because Larry Cohen plays it pretty straight. Guerrilla filming on the streets of NYC helps create a sense of verisimilitude, and the characterisation is both unusual and strong.
Larry Cohen once again proves himself to be among the most creative, original, and intelligent American horror film directors in this bizarre masterwork.
A freewheeling homage to both King Kong and producer Samuel Z. Arkoff's 1950s creature features that's slyly infected with marrow-deep societal tensions.
Enjoyable monster movie with some pretty decent performances.
Odd creepy special effects (the kind we don't see anymore) combine with a great performance by Moriarty to make this worth seeing.
A wonderful throwaway B movie about New York menaced by the title character. Campy at times.
Nifty creature design, and Michael Moriraty's fun, but the rest doesn't add up to much.
It's not devoid of kitschy pleasures.
Cheesy and a little bit sleazy -- just the way a 1980s Larry Cohen picture should be.
...There are no hidden messages or deep symbolic meanings to ponder.
Audience Reviews for Q: The Winged Serpent
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Latest News on Q: The Winged Serpent
July 20, 2007:
Larry Cohen Plans Remakes of It's Alive, Black Caesar, and The StuffLong before he wrote movies like "Phone Booth," "Cellular," and (ugh) "Captivity," filmmaker Larry...
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Foreign Titles
- Q, The Winged Serpent (AU)
The other half of what makes Q unique is the adventurous, voracious performance of Michael Moriarty. If Ratzo Rizzo was over-thought-out acting which Hoffman's second thoughts would have turned down a notch, here we get urban lowlife Jimmy Quinn and the opposite mistake. It's a method-like performance that is totally feeling driven, and might reach too much into Morarity's own reserves as an eccentric gone crazy. For a while, Quinn ( -- starts with "Q" -- ) is a amazing creation, and since he's more ordinary guy than crook, he has our empathy, and we like when he becomes a bit of a kook -- it's the common man's way of being Danny Kaye. But Quinn gets more selfish and annoying and resentful of how life has treated him, and empathy distills into pity, which is half chore. I started empathizing with the monster, who was too majestic to get shot down like Edward G. Robinson and had the whole city against him, even Jimmy Quinn.