By Chris Hyde

October 30, 2003

Iconoclastic filmmaker Larry Cohen has spent many years in Hollywood making films that arose from his unique vision. A case in point: Q, The Winged Serpent, a 1982 throwback to the big beast monster movie.

Last summer, the name of Larry Cohen surfaced once again at the megaplex as the screenplay he wrote for Phone Booth was filmed and sent to theaters. Unfortunately, though, Cohen himself was not the director of the piece as he had been for some previous 20 films over the course of his career. Apparently these days, having gems like Bone or It's Alive under your belt doesn't really count for much. But while it's a pity that a talented director such as this one has a difficult time finding work in today's corporate filmmaking environment, at least we have some Blue Underground DVD releases to show us a few scattered pieces of this wayward director's lifetime output.

Three of Cohen's works have just reappeared in digital form thanks to the efforts of this stellar DVD company (in addition to the aforementioned Bone and Q, there is also a release of God Told Me To), and all are given the usual fine treatment that this outfit generally showers on their product. While Q, The Winged Serpent may be little more than a fun quickie tribute to the classic monster movie, the company has handled the material with such care and has included such great extras that it really adds to the enjoyment of Cohen's film. However, this whole package would be utterly useless if the main event didn't entertain in its own right; but happily, the film being resurrected here is plenty worth visiting once again.

Q begins rather briskly, with a window washer snatched off of a New York building by some unseen entity. Just shortly after that, a woman sunbathing topless on the roof of an apartment building meets with the same fate. What can possibly be causing this skyscraper mayhem, grabbing up helpless Gothamites in broad daylight? That's the question that police detectives Powell (Richard Roundtree) and Shepard (David Carradine) hope to be able to answer as they investigate the grisly killings. In the meanwhile, small time hood Jimmy Quinn (played fabulously by Michael Moriarty) has agreed to be the driver on a jewel heist, but the job goes quickly awry and the he ends up running off on his cronies before the completion of the raid. Unfortunately for this frustrated jazz singer-turned-crook, he takes off with a satchel full of ice that he promptly loses in his haste to escape the scene of the crime.

Quinn's headlong rush through the streets of New York leads him to the very top of the Chrysler building, where he discovers to his horror some mutilated bodies inside the aerie lair of some unknown creature. Eventually he returns to his apartment with his fearful secret, while simultaneously the detectives continue to investigate the bizarre string of murders. This trail leads Shepard to a natural history museum, where he learns about the earthly manifestations of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and begins to understand that perhaps the odd killings are somehow related to this ancient religion. At the same time, Quinn's companions in crime find him at home and demand that he give up the jewels that he had skipped out with. Unable to produce the material, Quinn instead leads them to the Chrysler building where he claims to have left the stuff -- but here they unfortunately find themselves turned into lunch for a prehistoric beast.

Ultimately, the two concurrent plots combine as the cops pick up Quinn and realize that he's the key to finding out what's causing all the chaos. Since he's the only person in the city who really knows where the havoc-causing creature lives, Quinn uses this bargaining chip to extort major concessions from the police, and it remains unclear whether he will truly clue them in with enough information to rid the city of this ancient god before it becomes too powerful. The final 15 minutes of the film tie all the strings of the plot together and reveal whether or not the city can be saved from the giant feathered serpent before it's too late.

The storyline of Q remains a fairly standard trope centered on the classic "big beast" style of monster flick, but in Cohen's hands the material has far more depth than the average genre outing. While acknowledging its debt to its filmic forebears, Q's story actually has characters with real dimension, and the bravura performance by Michael Moriarty gives the movie a center around which to revolve. At the same time there's no danger of this movie falling into the pretentious trap of taking itself too seriously -- the pretty cheesy stop motion effects and arch attitude of the director make sure of that. Still, the substance of the film is treated fairly reverentially and there's a sense that Cohen is never really laughing at the trappings that he's utilizing. For the most part, Q plays much more like a tribute to the tradition of '50s and '60s monster movies, constantly evincing a love for the form that helps make the film transcend any sense of dismissive parody.

Though Q may be little more than a late low budget B-movie, it's given a treatment here that I'm quite sure many more highbrow features would love to have. The new transfer was struck from the original negative, and save for a few miniscule flaws, it looks spectacular. The audio transfer was also remastered for this special edition, and the sound is bright and clear in its new versions even though it was originally recorded in mono (but for good measure this original track is also available on this release). There's also a teaser trailer, poster and still galleries, a Larry Cohen biography and a DVD-ROM feature that displays some Q memorabilia included as extras. Last but not least is the truly killer bonus that Blue Underground has included that really makes the package a great one: an audio commentary by the man himself, director Larry Cohen. While sometimes director tracks are little more than blathering nonsense, this one is both fascinating and entertaining. It's filled with interesting tidbits about the filming of Q as well as the director's anecdotes about the cast members and filmmaking in general. Though at times it's advisable to take a pass on the commentaries included with many DVDs, in this case this track is completely essential and should not be missed.

Though Q could easily stand alone as an enjoyable flick on its own, the Special Edition packs in plenty of additional punch that makes this release a fitting tribute to a type of movie that has pretty much vanished from today's CGI dominated filmscape. Even in the early '80s this sort of project was fast disappearing from American screens, and so Q stands as a sort of last gasp representation of the low budget creature feature. Fortunately, the film was made with such dedication and love that it works as pure entertainment without resorting to cheap laughs or self-parody. The ideas here may be inherently lowbrow, but the quality script and solid work of the cast and crew add up to make the film a perfect execution of the trashy monster movie ideal. The simpler pleasures in life are sometimes the most satisfying, so if you're looking for a little fun and basic escapism then I'd suggest that you pop some popcorn, plop this disc in your DVD player and sit back and enjoy the show. No certified lover of genre pictures should miss it.