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Michael Moriarty, David Carradine, Candy Clark, Richard Roundtree, Malachy McCourt ... see more see more... , Lee Louis , John Capodice , Bruce Carradine , Ron Cey , Shelly Desai , Richard Duggan , Larkin Ford , Jennifer Howard , Eddie Jones , Fred Morsell , Tony Page , Larry Pine , Fred J. Scollay , Mary Louise Weller , James Dixon , Peter Hock , Nancy Stafford , Bobbi Burns , Ed Kovens

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... read more read more... 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, Rovi

Flixster Users

43% liked it

1,442 ratings

Critics

63% liked it

19 critics

R, 1 hr. 32 min.

Directed by: Larry Cohen

Release Date: September 8, 1982

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DVD Release Date: November 25, 2003

Stats: 135 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (135)

  • ajv2688
    January 11, 2011
    ajv2688
    Now this is a modern dragon tale! It's got blood and gore and a giant dragon flying around a major city, I love it.
  • kenstachnik
    January 7, 2011
    kenstachnik
    Richard Roundtree (Shaft of Shaft) and David Carradine (Bill of Kill Bill) fight a winged serpent in Manhattan with machine guns. That not awesome enough for you? Add boobs, decapitations, stop motion animation and a decent amount of gore, and you've got yourself a great Saturday... read more afternoon movie.
  • adammahler1
    August 8, 2010
    adammahler1
    About an hour in, Morarty goes off the rails and Cohen gives up on plotting and good dialogue. But until then, it's one of the most unique genre movies ever, taking a totally different angle of storytelling, in the plot, in the kind of dialogue that carries us from scene to scene... read more, in the shots of parts of New York City that create the whole, in the super high and low angles and aerial shots that are all different than we've seen before and all perfect for pulling the characterizations and the monster threat together.

    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.
  • threefolddado
    July 16, 2008
    threefolddado
    A nice little 80's treat.
  • The80sExpert
    March 6, 2009
    The80sExpert
    A dragon in modern times eating people sounds like a dumb idea, but this movie has enough story and 80s style gore to entice fans of the horror genre. Well, it's not that great, but I really liked this movie for some reason.
  • fushmange
    September 4, 2008
    fushmange
    Interesting. Kind of like Alligator but a notch or two less good. Love the 50's style stop motion effects.
  • thrusz
    July 3, 2008
    thrusz
    Wow. That. That certain was.

    My professor was shocked that I didn't know who Michael Moriarty was. I still claim that he's crazy. Honestly, Q: The Winged Serpent is one of his biggest movies. Now, I know there's kind of a cult following behind this movie. I mea... read moren, it is in Thomas Video's cult section, which means little sometimes, but Anchor Bay decided to grace this little piece of ridiculousness with a widescreen remastered VHS. While that may not sound as ridiculous as other things, take into consideration that The African Queen has never been released on DVD. Yeah. Q: The Winged Serpent was one of the few movies that was graced with a widescreen VHS copy. Maybe it was my duty to know who Michael Moriarty was. I still don't really agree with that thought, but I guess I should get onto reviewing this movie.

    This movie is, and I can't stress this enough, absolutely ridiculous. I'm not saying giant people in penguin costumes fighting robots from the planet formerly known as Pluto, but it is absurd nonetheless. But the part that really eats my ass is the fact is that there's actually a decent, classy movie somewhere in here. Now, I'm not talking My Dinner With Andre here (still haven't seen it. Shut up.), but I'm saying that there's some character and story here. Sure, they all surround a giant claymation dragon that bites peoples' heads off and lays eggs all over town, but the bulk of this story surrounds Michael Moriarty and his quest to not be mediocre. Sure, he's kind of a dick and you really don't root for him, but there's something there more than just the basic "kill the dragon" story.

    On top of all that character drama is David Carradine and Richard Roundtree. In most people's cases, Grasshopper and Shaft. (Or Bill, for those people born after 1990...) Now, when I see Carradine in a movie, I at least know that you can look forward to his performance. He is just a weird presence. Despite the condescending remark about 1990, I really got to know about David Carradine from Kill Bill as well. The dude is just extremely ecclectic and that always carries over to his performances. The funny thing is that he's always kind of billed as the culty actor because of his more famous parts, but he's in a lot of respectable dramas. He is third fiddle in an insane amount of really good classics and I always try to keep that in mind when I'm watching him. Then watching Richard Roundtree. This is immediately after his hayday. Most things I see with Roundtree are contemporary, building off of his campy reputation. It's fun seeing him play a one-note character, simply because that one-note is "super-serious cop." John Shaft without the sex.

    The special effects in this movie are exactly what you imagine. They're half-way decent, but use a lot of claymation and blood efffects. In fact, Cohen adds this whole subplot about Quetzoquotl and the Aztecs and it's just unnecessary. But the real reason he does all of that is just so he can have a good, ol' fashioned flaying sequence. Really, the movie is a bit of a gore fest, but I don't think he had enough gore to really justify a whole film, so he sold out and actually wrote a decent story. The flaying effects, perhaps, are the grossest part of the entire movie. Everytime Q gets a hold of someone, we really get the aftereffects, whether it's a body without a head or bones, that's alll of what we get. After all, if you see Q do something, it looks like King Kong is going at it. But the real disgusting, cringing stuff comes from the cutting away of the flesh.

    The only real problem that this movie has is that the Q part is really repetetive. Really, Q just kills a whole bunch of times and you see more and more of him as the movie goes on. The movie starts off cryptic and there's just a headless window washer. Then you start to see a tail. Then a shadow. Then a flash. Eventually, you see the creature fly, but it takes a while to get to that point. I wish there was something else Q could do, but that's about it.

    Also, that flying in front of the sun is bullsh*t. What about all the people at work? Also, what about the people who aren't standing at that angle? Goofy physics, Mr. Cohen. Goofy physics.

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Critic Reviews

Pat Graham
March 28, 2007
Pat Graham, Chicago Reader

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 priv... Full Review

Janet Maslin
August 30, 2004
Janet Maslin, New York Times

The only movie in which you may ever see a gnawed, bloody skeleton wearing a gold charm bracelet. Full Review

Sarah Boslaugh
September 30, 2011
Sarah Boslaugh, Playback:stl

...an inspired bit of madness from exploitation writer/director Larry Cohen... Full Review

Ian Berriman
December 14, 2010
Ian Berriman, SFX Magazine

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. Full Review

March 28, 2007
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Larry Cohen once again proves himself to be among the most creative, original, and intelligent American horror film directors in this bizarre masterwork. Full Review

January 26, 2006
Time Out

We have no hesitation in awarding Oscars all round. Full Review

Nick Schager
January 9, 2006
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

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. Full Review

Kim Newman
June 22, 2005
Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

Enjoyable monster movie with some pretty decent performances. Full Review

Jonathan W. Hickman
April 4, 2005
Jonathan W. Hickman, Entertainment Insiders

Odd creepy special effects (the kind we don't see anymore) combine with a great performance by Moriarty to make this worth seeing.

Bob Bloom
January 7, 2004
Bob Bloom, Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

A wonderful throwaway B movie about New York menaced by the title character. Campy at times.

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