Harefooted Halloween: Q (aka Q: The Winged Serpent)

What I Liked: Now this is a wacky straightforward story I can get behind.  A huge flying creature is going around NYC scooping up folks from rooftops and killing/eating them.  It’s up to the cops and one unsuspecting low-life civilian to stop it.  Sure, why not?

While Michael Moriarty’s (Troll, A Return to Salem’s Lot) character, Jimmy Quinn, is an annoying sleazebag his performance is good.  Quinn is a small time criminal with a checkered past who always blames others for his problems and leverages his unique knowledge about the monster for financial gain.  Moriarty nails this guy.  The way he speaks, his mannerisms and intensity all feel true to life.  I think we’re supposed to believe he has a heart of gold deep inside but we never really see that.  In a completely superfluous scene we find out he can play decent jazz piano which I guess is supposed to add dimension?  I dunno.  My point is while Quinn is irritating I can make a separation in my mind and appreciate the craft that went into the character.  Shoutout to Richard Rountree (Earthquake) who also gives a memorable performance as one of the cops investigating the bizarre deaths around town.

You know I gotta give it up for how they handled the dragon (I’m calling it that; throughout the movie they say “bird” but it has four legs, a pair of wings, a long tail, no feathers and is at least a hundred feet tall).  David Allen (The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Willow) and Randy Cook (Fright Night, Poltergeist II, The Lord of the Rings trilogy) use every trick in the book to sell it.  Stop motion animation, puppets, models, rear screen projection, POV angles, quick editing, etc.  And the end result doesn’t look half bad.  By that extension it doesn’t look half good either but for a low budget picture like this they did a totally admirable job.

That badass hand painted poster is fuckin’ cool as hell.  Boris Vallejo of Barbarella and National Lampoon’s Vacation fame did an awesome job.

What I Didn’t Like: This was a very rushed production with a relatively low budget so there’s a lot of head scratching in here.  A bunch of the time you’ll be asking yourself why is this person doing this?  Or where are they?  Or what’s going on now exactly?  Or how does no one in NYC notice an enormous flying beast going around murdering people and who nests in the top of the Chrysler Building?  Sure, you’re not supposed to take the film deadly seriously but it’s still a lot to accept.

They give an explanation as to why the dragon exists and that wasn’t necessary.  Supernatural elements in the form of ancient magic are introduced which I personally don’t care for.  I would’ve preferred the creature just exists to leave more mystery.  Asking why could’ve been explored in a sequel (there wasn’t one).

Overall Impressions: Certainly not for everyone.  It’s a mashup of Godzilla, Ray Harryhusen and Jaws with all the positives and negatives that come with that territory.  It’s a B picture so the script, acting and dialogue aren’t the best.  You also really need to suspend your disbelief with the base premise.  However, if you like the 1998 Godzilla there are plenty of similarities.

For what this is though I had a good time.  This is such an effects heavy project and they pulled off a miracle, especially since almost no pre-production was done.  Writer/director Larry Cohen (It’s Alive, The Stuff, writer: Maniac Cop) just shot stuff and worried about all the effects later which sounds like a nightmare to piece together.  But his team pulled through and the end result is a fun watchable creature feature.  Not only that but the score is nice, the cinematography is dynamic with lots of helicopter footage and even some parts that look like they were shot guerrilla style around NYC, the pacing is great with the dragon taking plenty of victims throughout, they got to shoot at the real Chrysler Building including the very top attic that naturally looks gloriously like a garbage dump and so on.  It’s kinda more impressive than an actual good movie.