Q is an underrated minor gem from Larry Cohen. It has a bit of gore, a lot of sardonic humor, and one of the most memorable characters in modern horror movies.
Tagline: You’ll just have time to scream…before it tears you apart!
AKA: Simply Q or The Winged Serpent
WTF Factor: ***
Notable Dialogue:
- Powell: “I’m looking for the head. The only place I haven’t looked is up in the parapets.
- Shepard: “There won’t be much left of it. You ever drop a cantaloupe from forty stories?”
Synopsis: An obnoxious window washer gets his head ripped off and Detective Shepard (David Carradine) and Sgt. Powell (Richard Roundtree) are investigating. Cut to a Peking duck being dissected in a Chinese restaurant. Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty) is a small time hood and general schmuck, being recruited for a diamond job.
Cut to a flayed body in a hotel room. Whoever skinned it is good with a scalpel. Cut to an aerial shot and a topless sunbather gets carried off by a flying something with a big mouth. It’s raining blood on the street, but the sun is blinding.
Quinn is trying to get a job as a musician. He’s a scat jazz pianist of sorts, but his audition in a cheap bar goes badly. Shepard, who happened to wander in, compliments him but Quinn blows him off.
The head of the gang insists that Quinn carry a gun and come into the diamond shop with him. The job goes badly, but Quinn gets out, and then manages to lose the gems in traffic when he is hit by a car. He tries to visit his lawyer in the Chrysler building, but he ends up going to the unused upper stories of the building to escape the guard.
The area is filled with debris, but Quinn finds a ladder to the very top of the spire.
Quinn: I’m almost afraid of everything but I never been afraid of heights.
He finds a giant egg in a nest by a hole in the outer wall and then the body of the sunbather with the flesh eaten.
The monster grabs a construction worker and this time, body parts rain down on the streets.
We catch our first full glimpse of the problem.
Shepard is investigating the flayed corpse. He learns about Aztec religion and the flying serpent god Quetzalcoatl at the museum visited by the victim. The explicator indicates that the human sacrifice must be willing in order to fulfill the flaying ritual to bring Quetzalcoatl [hereafter known as Q] back. After the sacrifice, the high priest wears the human skin. We can see that the pictures of Q match the shadow we saw. Shepard begins to believe that the monster is real.
Quinn lives with Joan (Candy Clark), who describes him as an abusive ex-junkie, which sounds about right. She is not pleased with him. Quinn describes his experience at the Chrysler Building and Joan is skeptical.
Now we see a human sacrifice scene with the willing victim’s heart removed.
There are rumors in the city about a giant bird but no one has a clear sighting yet. Shepard consults another expert, who points out that giant bird legends occur all over the world.
The hoods come for the goods, but for some reason they don’t believe that Quinn lost the diamonds and Quinn runs, with a jazzy tune on the soundtrack. The hoods are not pleased. They catch up with him pretty easily and Quinn takes them to the Chrysler building and feeds them to Q. As Quinn hysterically climbs down the ladder, he has the best lines in the movie:
“Eat ‘em! Eat ‘em! Crunch! Crunch!”
Meanwhile the bird grabs another rooftop victim from a pool, and this time forty-three witnesses get a clear look.
Shortly thereafter Quinn is arrested for the gem robbery. Powell questions him roughly. The security guard from the Chrysler Building is also at the station describing the men who broke in. While Quinn tries to be inconspicuous, Shepard and Powell meet with the captain about what’s going on. Shepard believes in the giant bird and human sacrifices, and has written it up in his report, tying the two together. Powell is not impressed.
Captain [worried about where the monster might be holed up]: “My God, with a wingspan like you’re talking about here, that thing could fly miles into New York City every day. And it would do that, of course, you know, because New York is famous for great eating.”
Shepard is certain that the bird hangs out in Manhattan, although the others are skeptical. Quinn is sent to jail. He realizes the cops are onto the bird and plans an extortion scheme. Joan wants Quinn to tell cops about Q and “do the decent thing.” Quinn is not pleased and then Joan is not pleased either, particularly after hearing that he let the bird kill the two hoods.
Quinn: All my life I been a nobody. And right now I could be somebody important. You expect me to give that up?”
Quinn meets with the Commissioner, with Shepard, and Powell present. He demands immunity from prosecution, $1,000,000, and all photo and book rights in exchange for the location of the nest. The commissioner is not pleased but a contract is drawn up. Over coffee Shepard points out that they’ve met before, at the bar. He tries to pump Quinn for information which Quinn gives up pretty readily, but reporters interrupt them. Shepard is not pleased to hear about the egg. Then Powell shows up before Quinn names the Chrysler building.
The deal is set. The commissioner gives Shepard his report back and tells him to separate the mutilation case from the bird case. Shepard tears up the report.
Elated, Quinn takes the police to the nest, although he isn’t pleased when Shepard makes him go all the way up to the spire with him. Shepard destroys the egg with a little Q inside. Baby doesn’t go down easy.
Shepard tells Quinn he won’t get his money because they didn’t get the bird.
The police stake out the museum with an undercover cop dressed up like a mime. They follow the mutilation suspect, who is a medical student, and his “victim.”
Powell is still skeptical of the whole concept. The priest has an altar set up in the Liberty Warehouse. The police manage to shoot the victim but the priest gets away. However, Q carries off Powell in the process.
Quinn goes to Joan’s apartment and starts smashing things. Joan throws him out.
Q returns to her nest. There is a big shootout and lots of casualties. Q picks off a number of policemen; the falling effects in this film are really, really bad. They think they’ve defeated Q, who comes back for one last pass at Shepard.
Q finally bites the dust from just the bullets, which is rather disappointing.
The Aztec priest goes after Quinn in a cheap hotel room; he wants Quinn to volunteer to be the final sacrifice.
Quinn: “Piss. Piss on your bird. I ain’t sayin’ any goddamn prayers.”
Shepard arrives to save the day. The priest won’t stay dead so Shepard has to shoot him four different times.
Quinn tells Shepard he won’t go back to Joan until he has a job as a musician.
Meanwhile we get more aerial shots [uh, oh] and we see a big egg hatching in an abandoned building. And it’s “A Larry Cohen Film.”
Thoughts:
In interviews, Larry Cohen (It’s Alive (1974), The Stuff (1985)) has frequently said that Q is his favorite movie, even though it only had a limited release. It’s easy to see why he was fond of it; the balance in his script between the gory (for the times) killings and the humor is just right. The movie is well-acted and -directed, with steady pacing. The limited budget is obvious only on a few occasions, partly because the movie was actually shot at the top of the Chrysler Building, as Cohen had envisioned. The ready-made, creepy location was perfect for the nest scenes. Other scenes were shot on New York City streets, adding a note of authenticity to the setting.
The main attraction here is Michael Moriarty’s performance as the hapless Jimmy Quinn. This was certainly one of the most memorable roles of his movie career (his performance in Cohen’s The Stuff is compelling too). While the rest of the cast gave naturalistic performances, Moriarty’s acting is pure Method. It’s impossible to take your eyes off of him when he’s on-screen. Quinn is a fully realized character who often talks to himself when alone, keeping us apprised of his state of mind, such as it is. Moriarty is in real life a scat jazz musician who has recorded several albums, including original material. He is distinctly less idiosyncratic in his non-Q endeavors.
The monster effects were done by a team led by David Allen, Randy Cook, and Peter Kuran, using reasonably effective stop-motion animation, although this will never be mistaken for Ray Harryhausen’s work. The animation has a retro feel that is a pleasant change from CGI. Q is mostly kept to quick glimpses as it plucks its victims from rooftops, which was probably a good decision, for both suspense and budget considerations. In many cases, the director uses swooping aerial shots to suggest monster-vision, which is also successful, if somewhat nausea-inducing at times. The one place the effects really fall down is in the mattes for the policemen being flung from the Chrysler building. Those are so bad it almost seems deliberate.
If you like B-movie horror, I highly recommend this movie. It isn’t particularly scary, but the deadpan humor and Moriarty’s character elevate it above most of the alternatives.
Quick bits:
- The original print had a final title card saying that Quinn sued the city and won $1 million; for some reason, this is missing from the video releases.
- The famous poster was drawn by fantasy illustrator Boris Vallejo.
- The Little Liberty statue was removed from the Liberty Warehouse in 2002 to make room for luxury apartments. I wonder if the tenants have ever seen the movie.
Suggested double feature: The Flying Serpent (1946) for further adventures of Quetzalcoatl, or of course, The Giant Claw (1957)
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “After 300 years in the grave… they returned to reap BLOOD HAVOC!”
