Review of Q (1982) by Allan C — 01 Apr 2016

Writer/director Larry Cohen is one of my favorite filmmakers because his films are always original and bring something interesting to whichever disreputable genre he happens to be working in at the moment.

In "Q" which is sometimes known as "Q: The Winged Serpent" is a clever mash-up of a police procedural with something of a medieval fantasy, which then ends up being at it's heart a horror film, telling the gonzo story of a series of mysterious rooftop murders in New York City.

The culprit is an Aztec god in the form of a giant flying serpent who skilling people to feed it's young, who are nesting at the top of the Chrysler Building. A low level con-man criminal, played by the greatly underrated and underused Michael Moriarty stumbles upon the the creature's lair is when the story takes a wildly entertaining turn.

Moriarty's foil is David Carradine, playing a NYC detective in charge of investigating the series of murders. Moriarty and Carradine are both great, giving utterly sincere performances for a ridiculous situation.

I'd forgotten how great an onscreen presence Carradine has and made me want to re-watch him in the "Kill Bill" films, since Carradine's list of quality films is sadly pretty short. However, as fun as this film is, it is missing the usual subtext present in most of Cohen's films.

This film seems like it's more of just a fun monster movie and a pretty darn entertaining on. This may be due to the fact that this film was rushing into production after Cohen was fired off of another picture ("I, the Jury") and he decided he didn't want to waste his hotel room and pitched this idea of low budget schlock producer Samuel Z.

Arkoff and this film zipped into production. Despite the film lacking a thoughtful subtext or social commentary present in most of Cohen's films, this film is still a rollicking good time.