- Q (film)
Infobox Film
name = Q: The Winged Serpent
caption = original movie poster for "Q"
director =Larry Cohen
producer =Larry Cohen
writer =Larry Cohen
starring =Michael Moriarty Candy Clark David Carradine Richard Roundtree James Dixon Ron Cey
music =Robert O. Ragland
cinematography =Robert Levi Fred Murphy
editing =Armond Lebowitz
distributor =United Film Distribution Company (UFDC)
released =October 29 ,1982 (USA)
runtime = 93 mins
country =United States
language = English
budget = $1,200,000 (estimated)
amg_id = 1:106946
imdb_id = 0084556"Q" (also known as "The Winged Serpent" and as "Q - The Winged Serpent") is a 1982
horror film written and directed byLarry Cohen and starringMichael Moriarty ,Candy Clark ,David Carradine , andRichard Roundtree . The original music score was composed byRobert O. Ragland . The film was marketed with the tagline "It's name is Quetzalcoatl... just call it Q, that's all you'll have time to say before it tears you apart!" Roger Ebert gave the film 2 and 1/2 stars in his original review but was bursting with praise for Moriarty's performance. He relates the anecdote that, when movie reviewerRex Reed met Q's producer,Samuel Z. Arkoff , Reed told him "What a surprise! All that dreck--and right in the middle of it, a great Method performance by Michael Moriarty!" Arkoff replied "The dreck was my idea." [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19820101/REVIEWS/201010340/1023 Roger Ebert's review] ]ynopsis
The film's premise is that the Aztec god
Quetzalcoatl , the "winged serpent", has been resurrected by acult in modernNew York City and is flying about, snatching people off the skyscrapers. Carradine and Roundtree playpolice detective s investigating the sudden rash of suspicious deaths, disappearances and dismemberings. Meanwhile a petty criminal (Moriarty), on the run after a failed robbery, accidentally discovers the creature's lair and tries toblackmail the city into paying for the information."Q" is laced with Cohen's trademark throwaway humour. Confronted with the mysterious death of a window cleaner, a detective reasons "maybe his head got loose and fell off", and later someone speculates that the monster may have come to the Big Apple because "New York is famous for good eating".
The movie was shot on location in and around the
Chrysler Building and uses the actual interior of the building's cone as a primary set; astonishingly, the inside of the cone resembles an unfinished attic, with two-by-fours on the floor.Like Cohen's earlier "
God Told Me To ", "Q" notes the similarities between gods andmonster s; at one point Carradine's character speculates that the only real difference between the two is that monsters can be killed.Main cast
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Michael Moriarty - Jimmy Quinn
*Candy Clark - Joan
*David Carradine - Detective Shepard
*Richard Roundtree - Sergeant Powell
*James Dixon - Lieutenant Murray
*Malachy McCourt - Commissioner McConnell
*Ron Cey - Detective HobermanReferences
External links
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