I came across the term, ‘American Kaiju,’ on (I think) a review of Rampage (2018) when that movie was first coming out, and that’s a good category to put Q, The Winged Serpent in, among a few others I can think of (Monster Hunter, Love And Monsters). Of course, it’s an oxymoron, but it works for those American films heavily influenced by Japan’s kaiju genre.

My God, this is such a heavy memory movie of mine, I can’t even tell you. No, wait, I can, and I’m about to. I was thirteen when it came out and I vividly remember the teaser that aired on TV late one afternoon after I got home from school. There was a trailer I saw after that, was kind of teaser ‘centric, but it showed a tantalizing glimpse of the monster the other one didn’t and I was instantly hooked! There was a girl in school named Lisa, whom shared a love of genre flicks, and whom I had a crush on, I spoke to about the teaser/trailer the next day. I can’t recall if she had seen it, but this flick always brings back memories of that moment with her. As usual I didn’t end up seeing the movie until it hit cable a year later.

Usually movies of this kind, when they begin, the monster has already gained a reputation before hand, or it’s just starting, with Q it’s the latter! We’re in New York City, circa 1982, and two things are happening at the same time: a skinned body is found in a hotel room, and a window washer has suddenly lost his head. It’s not a mystery on how the man’s head “disappeared,” we hear a monstrous screech, a chomp and a headless corpse slump against the window. Okay, I got it, this monster has claimed its first victim, but what does that skinned dude have to do with anything?

Enter two of our main characters, detective Shepard (David Carradine) and Sgt. Powell (Richard Roundtree). Shepard is the one who does most of the leg work trying to find a link. As the movie slowly plays out, more skinned dudes are discovered, this time with their hearts missing, and more people are killed by something that isn’t entirely concerned about being spotted: a woman sunbathing on a roof, a dude swimming in a pool, also on a roof, a couple of construction workers, both of which working high up. Height is the one thing they have in common, because it’s easy for a flying monster to snatch up prey that works close to the sky. Down below isn’t much fun either, for a creature who sometimes devours its human prey in flight, blood and an occasional body part will plummet to the street below, and, yeah, that would certainly add to the gruesome mystery when newspapers start reporting sightings of an immense “bird” in the skies over New York.

But, again, what the fuck does that have to do with skinned, heartless corpses popping up here and there? That’s what Shepard wants to know, and a lead gets him to a museum where the victim and the perp may have met. Here we’re introduced to Aztec religion, specifically the kind that sacrifices humans to a God known as Quetzalcoatl (pronounced ket-zill-quatul), The Feathered (or Plumed) Serpent. Given the evidence he has Shepard comes to the conclusion a modern day Aztec cult is recruiting willing sacrifices, because the victim has to want to have his heart cut out and body flayed, is operating within the New York City border. Not sure why, or how he comes to his next theory, the one linking these sacrifices to the now obvious giant “bird” plucking people off rooftops, but he thinks this monster (Quetzalcoatl) has been prayed back into existence by these sacrifices, leaving us, and Shepard, wondering if they’re dealing with an actual “God” or a flesh and blood beast?

I did like this food-for-thought aspect of the movie, this ephemeral layer, whether an actual supernatural being has been “prayed” back into existence, and this is the form it’s taken, or whether it’s just coincidence this thing appears at the moment an Aztec groupie wants to reawaken an Aztec God. It leaves Shepard wondering, well, if he can kill it it’s just a good ol’ fashion monster, and that’s pretty much how the movie ends, with a dead monster. But you have to wonder, was there some kind of “supernatural” connection between the sacrifices and the appearance of this creature?

There’s another subplot that runs concurrent with Shepard and Powell’s investigation, the tale of a small time hood/ex-con, Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty) and his chick, Joan (Candy Clark). She’s mostly a supporting character, but a memorable one. It’s Candy Clark, for Christ’s sake. Jimmy’s trying to go the straight and narrow but can’t find non-criminal work, so he hooks up with a bunch of guys who plan to knock over a jewelry store. The deed goes down, and Jimmy is left holding the diamonds. His escape leads to a sprained leg and the loss of the pouch the diamonds were in, not to mention a vendetta by two of the remaining hoods, Doyle (John Capodice) and Webb (Tony Page), seeking him out to get them rocks back. And then Quinn had the bad luck, or good, depending how you look at it, to find himself hiding out in the spire of the Chrysler Building and coming across something that looks like a giant nest with a giant egg in it. I’ve always had a problem with this part of the film. Obviously this is where the monster is nesting, but every time they show the openings of the building in this area they never look big enough for such a massive creature to fit into. And there’s even one scene in the final act when the cops are up there, the thing peaks its head in and the head just barely fits in (see above), so how the hell can the whole body? I will say earlier in the film Shepard makes mention from the reports coming in the creature appears to be getting bigger, so, I guess, you could reason when it laid that egg it was small enough to fit. Quinn isn’t homicidal, he’s actually a rather sympathetic crook, but when Doyle and Webb finally catch up with him, to save his own life he leads them into a fatal trap with the creature, saying he’s hid the diamonds real good, but he’ll show him where, and once they get up there the creature munches on them.

Eventually, both Plot A and Plot B merge, with the cops learning Quinn just so happens to know where this thing is nesting, and if they can get the location from him they can go bag themselves a really cool stop-motion monster! Moriarty steals the show in this movie. He would go on to star in three more movies director Larry Cohen would make (The Stuff, A Return To Salem’s Lot, It’s Alive III: Island Of The Alive), plus an episode of the cable series, Masters Of Horror (“Pick Me Up”): , all of which are equally as fun as Q, except for the “Pick Me Up” episode; Moriarty’s a serial killer in that, and it never did anything for me. Incidentally, Q, is the full screen title that comes up, the subtitle, The Winged Serpent, is just for the posters.

FX artists Randall William Cook, Steve Neill and the late David Allen worked on the effects (Cook & Allen created and animatied the mother, Neill created Baby Q) and it’s one of my favorite designs in movie monster history, and one I’ve never seen duplicated in any other monster movie. It’s almost of a chimeric nature, it has a long serpentine neck with a merged head that definitely meets the ‘serpent’ quality in its Feathered Serpent description, but has the beak of a bird of prey. The bat-shaped wings come with interesting “striations” that give it a “feathered” appearance. The body sports four legs rather than the two a normal bird would have, giving it a dragon-like vibe, but each leg is tipped with massive bird talons, all of it balanced off with a long tail. For decades I’ve wished someone would create some kind of articulated action figure of it.

Here’s some great concept art by Cook. Some of this art even made it into the film in a scene where we get to see a few of the books and articles Shepard was given to read. Though the art below isn’t the one in the movie. 

The movie’s final act graces us with spectacular shots of the stop-motion monster as the cops come to exterminate it, first taking out the baby inside the egg, and then when Mother Q returns she gets riddled with every bullet the NYC police department has in their arsenal, though she gives as good as she gets and manages to take out a few cops in the process. As she flies away her final stand is at the top of a building that has a design similar to pyramid architecture one might find in ancient Mexico, it’s basically more food for thought as to what connection this obvious flesh and blood beast has with the Aztec god? Maybe it’s just an ancient throwback that’s managed to survive thousands of years, or was it race memory that had it recognizing the architecture? It crashes into it and eventually plummets to the ground. Sadly, we don’t get a shot of it dead at street level, or what the city did with the body. The guy going around sacrificing people finally gets nailed by the cops, with the help of Quinn. Of the main characters, Powell doesn’t manage to make it out alive, Q gets him while he’s on a stakeout, and in daylight, so all the other cops can finally see the damn thing is real. Speaking of daylight this is one giant monster movie where all the monster money shots are in the day, for there’s speculation by Shepard the beast has a pattern of attack that has it flying in line with the sun, so prey is temporarily blinded when they look up at it. This is probably true since some of the earlier attacks are shown in this regard. This always had me wondering then what does the monster do on cloudy and rainy days?

For more on Q, The Winged Serpent, here’s a great article with interviews: An Oral History Of The Cult Classic Q: The Winged Serpent and an article from Fangoria issue #24 below. Click photos to enlarge & read:

Anchor Bay Entertainment was the first boutique distributor to ever put Q, The Winged Serpent on DVD back in 1998, then Blue Underground got a hold if it and did their own disc (remastered, with extras) back in 2003. When blu-ray entered our existence it was Shout! Factory under their genre sub-label, Scream Factory, who gave us its high definition debut in 2013. Buy it here on their site and on Amazon. Japan’s Stingray label graced their country with their own version in 2017, that version is out-of-print, so you’ll have to hit up this eBay listing here to acquire it.

SCREAM FACTORY 2013 BLU-RAY

STINGRAY 2017 BLU-RAY

VIDEO/AUDIO/SUBTITLES (Scream Factory Blu): 1080p 1.78:1 high definition widescreen—2.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio—English subs only

VIDEO/AUDIO/SUBTITLES (Stingray Blu): 1080p 1.85:1 high definition widescreen—2.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.0 Japanese DTS-HS Master Audio—Japanese subs only

I’ve compared Scream’s blu with Stingray’s, with the latter having created a new 1080p transfer, and as you’d expect Stingray’s transfer is sharper! Audio is better too. I listen to my movies on cordless headphones and the audio comes in clearer and louder with Stingray’s. So, if you really need to have their disc the eBay link is above but it’s going to cost you $70.

EXTRAS INCLUDED (SCREAM FACTORY) . . . 

  • Audio Commentary With Writer/Producer/Director Larry Cohen
  • Teaser (:33)
  • Trailer (2:32)

EXTRAS INCLUDED (STINGRAY) . . .

  • Audio Commentary With Writer/Producer/Director Larry Cohen
  • TV TOKYO “Thursday Movie Theater” broadcasted on June 11, 1987—Some parts, where there is no Japanese dubbing (about 1 minute) will be closed caption correspondence(??)
  • Larry Cohen Video Message For Japan (:59)
  • Confessions Of A Low Budget Maverick—Interview With Director Larry Cohen (25:08)
  • Quest For Q, Part 1: Randall William Cook (1:01:52)
  • Quest for Q: Part 2: Steve Neill (54:43)
  • Treasured SFX Making 1: Studio Mini Tour (Randy Cook) (15:28)
  • Treasured SFX Making 1: Puppet Mold Making (Steve Neill, Randall William Cook) (23:52)
  • Treasured SFX Making 1: Baby Q Operation (Randall William Cook, David Allen, Dennis Gordon) (41:25)
  • Treasured SFX Making 1: Animating Landscape (Randall William Cook & David Allen) (48:12)
  • Photo Gallery #1 (2:36/49 Photos)
  • Photo Gallery #2 (Posters, Lobby Cards, VHS & DVD Covers) (3:39/71 Photos)
  • Teaser #1 (:28)
  • Teaser #2 (:34)
  • Trailer #1 (2:34)
  • Trailer #2 (1:18)
  • Gachiban Film Festival Talk Event (No English Subtitles) (11:21)
  • Exclusive 12-page Booklet (Commentary By Shibuya Shiro)
  • Jacket illustration By Yuji Kaida

Note: I couldn’t find the TV TOKYO extra mentioned above. 

If you’ve made it this far into the review, it’s clear you have no other choice but to come to the conclusion Scream Factory dropped the ball on their release. Not only couldn’t they remaster the film, but they didn’t load it up with the kinds of copious extras befitting of an 80s cult classic monster movie. Now, I’d like to think their decision came down to money, to something like, well, if we give Q a Collector’s Edition then we won’t have enough money to give this film over here one, and maybe that other film was more of an adored cult classic so decisions had to be made. I’d like to think it was that than thinking Q wasn’t deserving of a remastering extras-filled edition. I’m betting if Scream decides to revisit it, like they have with a number of Roger Corman’s movies they’ve steelbooked, it’ll get the same 4K scan treatment and all, though I’ll bet not all of the extras on Stingray’s disc would get ported over since a couple of them are Stingray exclusives, like the hour long interviews with Cook and Neill. Not sure about the ‘Confessions Of A Low Budget Maverick,’ even though that extra was created by Severin, best I could find was it only saw the light of day on Australia’s Umbrella Entertainment’s 2014 blu of Q. At any rate let Stingray’s disc be the current benchmark on how you properly blu Q, The Winged Serpent. 

Concerning the extras, there isn’t one that stands out, generally I can find one or two that I like more than the others, but in this case most of the extras are of equal greatness. The two Stingray exclusive interviews with FX artists, Randall William Cook and Steve Neill are pretty in depth, covering their inspirations, the early movies they worked on, what led them to Q, The Winged Serpent, and then what it took to get Q into the movie; Neill’s contribution was the building of the baby Q; FX artist Chris Endicott conducted the interviews.  There are four behind-the-scenes home videos that are to die for, Cook and Neill are seen in them, along with stop-motion artist David Allen and Dennis Gordon. With them you get to be a fly on the wall and watch the guys build the Q puppet, build baby Q, test Baby Q’s death scene, paint the puppets, and in the final one watch David Allen film a scene, and with it, kids, see how they used to create stop-motion monsters for movies back in the olden days. Nowadays, monsters are made in computers, not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just comforting from time to time to watch artists toil away with physical materials to give us monster fans memory movies to review in their middle age. My hat’s off to you guys.