By Geno McGahee
A giant flying lizard god in New York City, eating the heads of its victims…how can you go wrong? The answer is: you can’t! In Q, the 1982 horror entry, we have reports of a giant flying “bird” and several people being killed and skinned alive. There is a connection.
Shepard (David Carradine) and his partner Powell (Richard Roundtree) are investigating a serial killer that is skinning his victims. Shepard believes that this has to do with ancient worship and that there may be a giant flying lizard killing people.
Jimmy (Michael Moriarty) is a crook that got caught up in a diamond heist and as he ran from the scene, he lost his diamonds and made his way to the top of a skyscraper, where the found a giant egg and nest. It’s odd seeing Moriarty in a role like this. He’s usually a confident bad ass like he was in THE STUFF and LAW & ORDER, but here, he’s a wimp. He plays the role well, and he rides the line of likable and detestable very well.
The flying lizard god becomes more of a problem as it starts grabbing people more regularly. This one poor guy is surrounded by hot babes and as he goes for a swim, he gets grabbed and the next thing he knows is that he’s flying over the city and then killed.
One minor complaint I have is that there isn’t enough lizard god for the buck, but considering the restrictions and that they were dealing with a mixture of Claymation and puppetry, I understand that they couldn’t use him that much. What a pity.
In the end, Jimmy leads the police to the egg and they take it down, which enrages mama dragon and it becomes a crazy scene as the cops are fighting off this flying beast from the top of a skyscraper. Sadly, the cops are mostly taken out in fantastic fashion. Watching them thrown or chomped to death was more than amusing.
Q is a great monster movie. I love the location and for Claymation, the monster looks pretty good. Jimmy’s relationship with his girlfriend was used a bit too much as filler, but it maintained my interest and was pretty fun…especially the ending. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 7.5/10
