DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Q The Winged Serpent

By Andy McKeague Jun 22, 2005, 19:45 GMT

‘Q’ has charm, plain and simple. It is the product that only the early 80’s could bring and now it has been cleaned up, dusted off and has never looked or sounded better.

In times past, the Big Apple has been more fortunate than Tokyo when it comes to monster attack, but this time there is a large reptilian Aztec god flying around the Apple’s sky and it’s picking off the occasional worker, criminal, police officer, and topless sunbather, littering the streets with blood splatters and body parts. Welcome to ‘Q’, or as we know it in Europe, ‘Q: The Winged Serpent’.

Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty) is a two-bit crook, ex-junkie and Bebop piano player that is constantly down on his luck. Trying to sort out his life, he gets mixed up with a diamond heist and ends up running from the police and loosing the gems on the way. He thinks both the crooks and the police will be on his tail so ends up hiding in the attic of the Chrysler Building. Under this mighty dome he finds more than what he bargained for.

Meanwhile cops, Detective Shepard (David Carradine) and Sergeant Powell (Richard Roundtree), are having a bad day at the office. Not only are people on the streets of New York having blood raining down on them, with the odd arm or leg, but also there are people being sliced and diced in hotel rooms in a very ritualistic manner. Not your average day for the NYPD.

Quinn goes to his girlfriend, Joan (Candy Clark), distraught and dishevelled, he tries to tell her what he found earlier and the predicament that he is in, but wait, he has an idea that this can be used to his advantage. Rumours are increasing about a giant flying lizard causing terror and panic and only he knows of its nesting place. The City is in the palm of Quinn’s hand and it’s pay time for all those crap years he has had to suffer; no more bum jobs, no more crooked deals, no more Mr. Nobody. $1,000,000 is his asking price, the City’s safety is at ransom.

Larry Cohen, low budget movie auteur, has a field day with his ‘King Kong’ story, mixing in elements almost approaching noir and never letting the blackest of humour leave below its surface. This should have been a shoddy piece of exploitation, but it works remarkably well. A good script from Cohen and tight panoramic views of New York’s cityscapes thanks to Cinematographer Fred Murphy, all add merit, which makes us more than forgiving when we see the winged Harryheusen-type plastacine monster. The cast do a good job, including the usually irritating Moriarty, who I will be honest I do not rate as an actor, and Carradine, who is great getting his teeth into the action man role.

Anchor Bay has packaged this well, we have the wonderfully lurid cover on the slipcase with the multi-fanged Quetzalcoatl clutching a scantily clad screaming nubile in its claws, surrounded by a large ‘Q’, a poster only the politically free 1980’s could ever conceive.

Now to the disc itself, this has great new 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS sound tracks, but as far as extras are concerned, sadly, there is a lack of meat. With only a few trailers, some text pages and photos (DVD-Rom content), the only item really worth a mention is the fun audio commentary from Director Cohen himself.

'Q: The Winged Serpent' is available via Amazon and AmazonUK.

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