Rent Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)
3.2 of 5 from 81 ratings
1h 33min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- It's another monstrous day in New York City where window washers have their heads bitten off, topless sunbathers are plucked from rooftops, bloody body parts rain onto the streets and small-time crook Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty) discovers a humongous nest in the spire of The Chrysler Building. Meanwhile, an NYPD detective investigates a series of ritual sacrifice murders that may have unleashed a giant flying Aztec Serpent God into the skies of Manhattan. Its name is Quetzalcoatl, but just call it Q...that's all you'll have time to say before it tears you apart!
- Actors:
- Michael Moriarty, Candy Clark, David Carradine, Richard Roundtree, James Dixon, Malachy McCourt, John Capodice, Bruce Carradine, Tony Page, Shelly Desai, Larry Pine, Fred J. Scollay, Peter Hock, Ron Cey, Mary Louise Weller, Eddie Jones, Lee Louis, Fred Morsell, Ed Kovens, Richard Duggan
- Directors:
- Larry Cohen
- Producers:
- Larry Cohen
- Writers:
- Larry Cohen
- Studio:
- Anchor Bay
- Genres:
- Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers
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Reviews (2) of Q: The Winged Serpent
Nest in Show - Q: The Winged Serpent review by griggs
New York’s iconic skyline acquires an unwanted tenant in Q: The Winged Serpent, Larry Cohen’s gloriously scrappy 1982 creature feature. Q nests its Aztec god Quetzalcoatl in the spire of the Chrysler Building — a neat sidestep from the Empire State’s usual King Kong duties — and has enormous fun with a premise that takes itself just seriously enough.
Bodies keep turning up on rooftops, the NYPD flails about beneath the skyline, and Michael Moriarty’s twitchy jazz-pianist crook blunders into the middle of it all. Moriarty is flat-out electric here, all nervy improvisation and squirrelly energy in a film that could easily have settled for cardboard. Somehow he makes the whole thing feel half a step away from a Scorsese burnout wandering into the wrong movie.
The swooping stop-motion ambition keeps bumping into the limits of the budget, but Cohen never lets the film sag. He moves through the chaos with the brisk confidence of someone who knows exactly what kind of film he’s making. Breezy, unpretentious, and oddly charming — even if it never quite soars.
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So bad it's good :) - Q: The Winged Serpent review by RP
It's a sort of sci-fi creature-feature. In this case the 'creature' is a 'winged serpent', sort of like a flying lizard, that sets up a roost - and lays an egg - in the tower of New York's iconic Chrysler Building. From there it goes on hunting expeditions - apparently the heads of hapless window cleaners, topless rooftop sunbathers, young men in rooftop swimming pools etc are considered to be delicacies.
There is also a confusing subplot about human sacrifice bringing back the ancient Aztec god Quetzalcoatl (Q for short, hence the film's title). David Carradine (of 'Kung Fu' fame) stars as a detective taxed with getting the beast, but only Michael Moriarty (who plays a low-life getaway driver) knows where it roosts.
It's all very silly and to call it a 'horror' movie would be wrong - it's a cheesy period piece, with the odd spot of blood and bare chest on show. In fact it's one of those films that could be classified as 'so bad it's good' and for that reason I'll give it 4/5 stars.
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