Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)

April 5th, 2019

Directed by: Larry Cohen

Written by: Larry Cohen

Starring: David Carradine, Michael Moriarty, Candy Clark

Budget: $1,200,000

Quote: "Well, I figure something fell out of one of the windows from the floor up above. Hit him. Sheared his head clean off. A shard of glass or something like that... Oh shit! Maybe his head just got loose and fell off. Look, whadda' you want from me?"

Trivia: The film that Larry Cohen was fired from before starting production on this movie was I, the Jury (1982). It cost 8 times as much as Q (1982) but only made one quarter as much at the box office.

Joe Bob Briggs and The Last Drive In are back! The second episode in his new weekly show had a double feature showing Larry Cohen's monster movie, Q: The Winged Serpent and the sexual gore fest Society. I had already seen Society, but, Q, was new to me. I am familiar with a lot of Larry Cohen's other films (God Told Me To, Blue Sunshine, The Stuff) and was excited to see another one of his films. It also helped that Joe Bob said this was the best movie ever made giving it four stars. While I liked the film, it didn't think it was all that much greater than C.H.U.D. (reviewed here), which Joe Bob ripped apart the previous week. David Carradine and Michael Moriarty played great parts, especially Moriarty (Do I hate him? Love him? Pity him?). And I liked the the cop drama parts, but the monster parts were cheesy and, for a monster film, surprisingly didn't really add to the film. I hate to disagree with our Patron Saint of movies, Mr. Briggs, but I give it two stars (maybe two and a half).


The movie begins with Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty) involved in a failed diamond heist. To evade the police, he hides at the top of the Chrysler building where he discovers the nesting lair of a winged monster. Meanwhile, detectives Shepherd (David Carradine) and Powell (Richard Roundtree) are busy investigating a set of mysterious bloody murders that have been happening on rooftops throughout the city which have some connection to an Aztec worship cult. Quinn makes the connection and being the dirtbag that he is, he decides to extort the city of a hefty sum of money for the location of the monster's lair ($1 million). They find the nest, destroy the egg (and baby inside), and fill the monster full of bullets in a final showdown. Afterwards, Shepherd  kills the Aztec worship cult leader. However, there is one more egg. The End...?

What I really liked about Cohen's writing in this film was that he avoided the cliches of so many other Hollywood movies. Quinn never learns anything or changes throughout his ordeal. At the end of the movie, he is just as big of a dirtbag as he was at the beginning of the film. Moriarty's character is emblematic of the nihilism of the early 1980s. He can be seen as the poster boy for the failure of the decade's shallow materialism. And his acting is top notch! He oscillates from anger to sadness to joy from moment to moment, yet all these emotions are consistently for a self-serving purpose. His performance and range of emotions makes the film worth watching all unto its own. It is also this realism that is a breath of fresh air in the midst of all the Hollywood bullshit stories that are constantly shoved down our throats (I'm looking at you, romantic comedies).

The movie is also a great reminder of the dirty heyday of the New York 80's. A time when the grindhouse theaters on 42nd Street were churning out video nasties, a time before Times Square became one giant advertisement billboard, and a time when there was a seediness to the city that pervaded almost everything. Like all of Cohen's films, this movie is a love letter to that New York. The movie is also a tribute to the Chrysler Building which has had to live in the shadows of the Empire State building since the Empire State Building was built two years after it. Loving his city, Cohen chose to film on location with the majority of the film being shot inside and around the Chrysler Building. I cannot think of another movie that uses the Chrysler Building in such a pivotal way (or at all). It is through this movie that I learned to appreciate the beauty of this art-deco building.

Alright, beautifully shot and great acting performance by Moriarty. What's the problem? I didn't mind the cheesy stop-and-go animation of the monster or the cheap props they used. In fact it seemed like a fun homage to the old monster B-movies of the 50s and 60s. For me, the problem with the film was that the monster seemed largely unimportant to the film. Almost as if it was an afterthought. The monster too was more of a B-story to Moriarty's A-story with the police. It seemed to be there as a vehicle to move Moriarty's story and not the other way around. I was fascinated during the cops and robbers sections of the film but found myself looking at my phone during the monster parts. Also, the Aztec cult parts make little since in the narrative with little background and very little motive behind the characters.

Either way, give it a view for Moriarty's performance and check out the Last Drive In version on Shudder to get more movie trivia from Joe Bob than you ever knew you needed.

...what's your thoughts?