Q

(vt The Winged Serpent; vt Q: The Winged Serpent)

   Film (1983). Larco. Prod and dir Larry COHEN, starring Michael Moriarty, Candy Clark, David Carradine. Screenplay Cohen. 92 mins. Colour.

   In this witty MONSTER MOVIE - which subverts our expectations about how both society and B-movies work in almost the same breath - "Q" represents on the one hand Quetzalcoatl, a giant winged serpent (thus sf) and Aztec god (thus not sf) that terrorizes New York, possibly called up by the city's violence, and on the other handQuinn (Moriarty), a small-time jewel thief and opportunist who discovers the monster's lair atop the Chrysler Building (where there is, naturally enough, an Aztec pyramid). The likable human monster Quinn metaphorically coalesces with the literal monster. But Quinn plays Judas to the incarnated god, thus laying himself open to retribution from a ritual mutilator, one of Q's disciples. He is saved by cool policeman Shepard (Carradine), to whom monsters are just one more story in the Naked City.Moriarty is superb and, in its confident mounting, its sophistication, and its higher-than-average (for Cohen) production values, Q may be its director's best film.

   PN