Q, The Winged Serpent

The skinning scene still creeps me out. I love the part where David Carradine screams, "There's an EGG???"

Great flick. My favorite Cohen-scripted flick, tied with Best Seller.

The man is a genius. Esp with Cohen, baby. Salem's Lot 2 and It's Alive 3: Island of the Alive anyone?

Speaking of which...when are the It's Alive films gonna get a big box set DVD release?

But yeah, Q is a blast. I need to get that DVD, still have my VHS tape.

I love, love, LOVE this movie!

Everything about it is so much fun. It's really a loving tribute to monster movies by Larry Cohen.

I like the idea that there is a giant monster on the loose, and they can't find it. It does seem dated in some respects (the police cars, were they really that blue?), but it is a tight story, good effects(for it's time) and great performances by the actors.

I like when the mine-cop gets tossed to his death later in the movie. Nice try, champ, but watch out for the ground.

Moriarty and Carradine were excellent in the movie.

A movie that deserves the name: classic.

According to Blue Underground's disc commentary with Lustig and Larry Cohen, Carradine took the role without even reading the script...which may explain why he's got this "What the hell am I doing? grin he's got on his face through the whole movie.

Q is solid movie monster stuff.

Continuing with my look into monster movie threads, I'm glad I knew so little about this movie going in. I knew some of the guys here recommended it, I knew Larry Cohen was involved (always a plus), and I knew it was about a giant lizard eating people in NYC.

What I didn't know and later was happy to discover:

- Michael Moriarty's absolutely batshit crazy performance. I've really never seen anything like it. You never see the gears working, it's never affected; it looks like he's actually coming unhinged. And in that way it's actually the most grounded facet of the movie. Everything's deliberately campy and theatrical except for him, even while he's crazy. It's fascinating to watch.

- The tone of the effects. By that I guess I mean the spirit with which they're conceived. I love the mixture of camp and gore (and tits, don't forget tits). Cohen innately knows how to use it so it works for the movie and not against it.

- Robert O. Ragland's music. I loved the way scores were applied to this particular era of the genre. Filmmakers knew they were walking a thin line between making entertainment and making junk, and they brought in composers to make catchy scores to smooth over the films' shortcomings (think of something like ORCA or TENTACLES). Not saying the filmmakers set out to make shit, but they knew a big score would only help.

I don't have that Blue Underground disc yet but perhaps I should remedy that.

haven't seen this is soooo long. All i remember is the naked girl on the roof and the head being ripped off the window washer. And to be frank, that's enough to put a huge smile on my face.

MM brings the goods in Cohen's THE STUFF (God, I love any Percy Rodrigues' trailer VO, no matter how little) as well. However, I can't think of Moriarty without his "Summertime Blues" song & dance routine in TROLL immediately coming to my mind.

I need to pop in my Q dvd. It's been too long.

He's awesome in this. He's like one of those background characters on The Sopranos suddenly thrust into this monster movie. "EAT 'EM!"

Finally got this on Netflix and loved it.Gore usually doesn't get me but the skinning part was pretty gross.

I can't remember the exact line, but Carradine saying something like 'HUGE!' and laughing as he exits screen (obviously an outtake) always gets a laugh outta me. I liked many of the Masters of Horror episodes when I first watched them, but Cohen's Pick Me Up was one of only two that stood up to a second veiwing.

How's this for symmetry... The subject of Robert Beltran came up in the NIGHT OF THE COMET thread today. Beltran played a priest in a flick last year called Cry of the Winged Serpent (from director Jim Wynorski!), with you guessed it, a quetzalcoatl.

I like this movie too. Larry Cohen did such a good job with a low budget and the cast was pretty good.