Q: The Winged Serpent
           
Director: Larry Cohen
Year: 1982
Rating: 7.0
By 1982 the Giant Monster genre had nearly gone into a coma. The big years were in the 1950s and 60s, both in America and Japan. Even Godzilla had been hiding since 1975 and wouldn't be back till 1984. But director Larry Cohen thought it was a good idea to make another Giant Monster film with a monster's name that no one could even pronounce. As it turned out, America was not ready for one and the film bombed bringing in $255,000. I am pretty sure $5 of that was mine. The office I was in at work faced the Chrysler Building a few avenues over and I always looked longingly at it. A spectacular bit of architecture that felt magical when the sun hits the metal at the top. And to think that inside was the mythical beast, Quetzalcoatl, residing! The building was actually used as one of the sets which made it all the cooler. Opinions of this film at the time and currently are all over the place, but I think it is wonderful. A great cast of genre players, some fine fun stop-motion special effects, a dark punchy New York City sense of humor, great location shooting around the city and a performance from Michael Moriarty that may be his best ever. He is an updated version of Ratzo Rizzo desperately trying not to be a loser in a city that likes winners. The film feels as New York City as a Sabrett hot dog covered in everything.



It begins with a gleaming panoramic shot of Manhattan from up high - the Twin Towers sitting in the back - and comes to rest on a window washer salivating at the woman on the other side of the glass. She is on the phone telling a friend that the creep is back - and suddenly he isn't. At least not his head. Across town a young woman is sunbathing topless on the roof of a condo building. Then she is screaming at a shadow over her. Policemen Shepard (David Carradine) and Powell (Richard Roundtree) are on the missing head case as well as someone who is skinning men while they are alive. The quick cut from the skinned man to a restaurant where the server is cutting out a nice slice of pork was a lovely transition. At the table are a bunch of lugs planning a jewel robbery, including Jimmy Quinn (Moriarty) the quintessential loser who always fucks himself in one way or another. He has agreed to become the driver - I don't go in - I just drive the car.



Of course, they force him to go with them and a minute later he is rushing out alone with the jewels but doesn't have the keys and goes on the fast walk - only to be swiped by a taxi losing the jewels. To get away from the cops he goes up to the top of the Chrysler Building and his adventure begins. He knows something no one else does he tells his poor put-upon girlfriend (Candy Clark) and when he leads two of the gangsters up there to meet Q, he feels like he is the King of New York. Candy tells him "I liked you better when you were just a small-time gangster". Meanwhile, the skinning's and the giant bird keep up their activities. They are in a crazy way connected. Sacrifices like the Aztecs did it. It's New York City. Anything is possible. Someone is probably doing it as I write.



Some solid stop-motion - in particular I enjoyed Q grabbing the cops shooting at him from the Chrysler Building and tossing them below. Today, we can report that Giant Monster films are doing just fine with Godzilla, worms, sharks, Ultraman, sea monsters, crocodiles, dinosaurs, robots. King Kong, Colossal and dragons taking up lots of screens. Now with tons of CGI and budgets that would probably have funded all the Giant Monster films of the 1950s and 60s. But there is something eternal about the idea of a monster trampling the earth and us puny humans battling back.