Q (1982), aka Q - THE WINGED SERPENT

Director: Larry Cohen

Writer: Larry Cohen

Producers: Samuel Z. Arkoff, Larry Cohen

Cast: Michael Moriarty, Candy Clark, David Carradine, Richard Roundtree, James Dixon, Fred J. Scollay, Malachy McCourt, Ron Cey, Peter Hock, Mary Louise Weller, Tony Page, Shelly Desai, John Capodice, Lee Louis, Bobbi Burns, Larry Pine, Larkin Ford, Eddie Jones, Fred Morsell, Ed Kovens, Linda Gilbert, Richard Duggan 

In New York City, people that venture out onto exposed places atop tall buildings are being attacked and eaten by an enormous flying creature. Small-time crook Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty) discovers a gigantic nest inside the peak of the Chrysler Building. The perennial loser realizes that he has found the lair of the menace terrorizing the city. Quinn relishes his secret, which he will only share with the authorities for a steep price. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

Maverick filmmaker Larry Cohen made some very distinctive horror movies. As he would often write, direct, and produce his own films, Cohen would not have to compromise and could deliver movies that were unique. He would use outrageous menaces to deal with uncomfortable themes and contemporary concerns that both unsettle and amuse the audience. 

Q seems like Cohen’s take on King Kong (1933), another movie about a giant monster loose in New York City. In King Kong, showman Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) is responsible for the widespread death and destruction his exploited monster deals to New York City, but that aspect is not explored. Q also shares with that earlier classic a protagonist exploiting the creature he discovers to make a profit. However, in Cohen’s story, his hustler Jimmy Quinn is not a globetrotting adventurer and showman, just an insecure nobody incapable of making an honest living. In the process of using this sort of a character for his protagonist, Cohen deals with the morality and conflicts involved with his anti-hero exploiting such a situation while a menace to his fellow citizens is at large. In Q, there is a lot of time spent with the selfish Jimmy Quinn and it is shown that he could promptly reveal information to put an end to the danger facing the city. 

We can appreciate Quinn’s plight of being a nobody who wants success and respect. However, we should also realize that withholding life-saving knowledge until a lucrative deal is struck is wrong. The real dynamic in this story is waiting to see how soon our flawed hero will do the right thing and if it is done for the right reason. 

Cohen also returns to a theme that he dealt with earlier in God Told Me To (1976). In that film he was exploring man’s relationship to faith in the Christian God. In Q, Cohen’s take on faith is that the title monster may be the ancient Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. It may have been summoned through a series of sacrificial rituals or could even have been prayed into existence. Both films deal with the same conundrum: Do the gods man worships actually exist or does man simply assign divinity to inhuman beings because he can’t fully comprehend them? 

Michael Moriarty delivers an eccentric performance as the pathetic Jimmy Quinn. He holds our attention in every scene despite Quinn being the kind of person that is usually beneath everyone’s notice. He is the loser we can pity till he shows how selfish he becomes with an opportunity for fame and fortune. Later we learn of the grievances he has due to previously being framed by law enforcement for his first arrest and conviction. Jimmy Quinn is a flawed character with a questionable set of values that challenges us to decide if we should root for him. Whether he is hero, villain, or loser, Moriarty’s Quinn is always an interesting character. 

Candy Clark, as Quinn’s girlfriend Joan, is that anchor of morality and common sense in Quinn’s empty life that he really does not seem to deserve. She must be just as quirky as Quinn to put up with this self-absorbed and dysfunctional individual. You really have to love Joan when she tries to see the good in him and stands by him when he is at his most neurotic. This is actually another pretty gutsy way of writer-director Cohen demonstrating that this story’s hero is challenging our acceptance of him. Cohen has the daring to keep presenting a character as pathetic as Quinn as the protagonist and still maintain our interest in him. 

This movie gives David Carradine the closest thing to a “regular guy” role I had ever seen him play. His Detective Shepard expresses humor and exasperation, and he even patronizes Quinn at one point trying to get his cooperation. Carradine is not just stoic or enigmatic in this film; he is actually quite amusing and likable. 

Richard Roundtree’s Sgt. Powell provides an antagonistic foil to both Jimmy Quinn and Detective Shepard. Initially, we think that Powell and Shepard will be partners that are always on the same page, but Powell’s friction with Shepard is another quirk in this film’s character interactions. This friction also demonstrates the workaday stress in big city law enforcement that is bound to affect those working relationships. This friction is not a gimmick used to develop character or plot; it just enlivens the police procedural scenes with a bit of emotional authenticity to keep them from seeming like scripted plot points. 

It is Cohen’s characters, their conflicts, and their eccentricities that make Q an involving film and not just a monster movie. It also creates interest that allows more screen time to be spent on the personal interactions of the characters rather than devoting extra time to monster action. This is not only a budget-conscious strategy (more effects cost more money), it also prevents us from becoming all too familiar with the creature so that it will still have some impact when it really lets loose. 

This movie’s menace is referenced as “Q” in the title. However, that initial actually references two menaces in this story: the mythical god of ancient Aztec culture Quetzalcoatl and the dangerously selfish Jimmy Quinn. This is an indication of how Larry Cohen’s horror films give the audience more than one thing to ponder about morality and culture along with plenty of dark humor. These qualities make Q a far more satisfying experience than many of the effects-driven fantasy films that were becoming evermore frequent in the ’80s.

UNCLE SAM (1996)

Director: William Lustig

Writer: Larry Cohen

Producer: George G. Braunstein

Cast: David Shark Fralick, Leslie Neale, Christopher Ogden, Isaac Hayes, Anne Tremko, Bo Hopkins, William Smith, Matthew Flint, Timothy Bottoms, Tim Grimm, Tom McFadden, P.J. Soles, Robert Forster, Zachary McLemore, Richard Cummings, Jr., Morgan Paull, Frank Pesce, Abby Ball, Laura Alcalde, Jason Adelman, Stanton Barrett, Raquel Alessi, Mark Chadwick, Chris Durand, Desirae Klein, Taylor Jones, Jason Lustig, Joseph Vitare, Steve Moramarco, Gary Viggers, Peter Fullerton, Jonathon Stearns, Greg Bronson (uncredited), Howard Kremer (uncredited) 

US Army Master Sergeant Sam Harper (David Shark Fralick) has been killed by friendly fire during Desert Storm in Kuwait. His body is sent back to his hometown for burial just before the Fourth of July. A combination of his nephew Jody’s (Christopher Ogden) hero worship of him and various town citizens disrespecting American patriotic tradition causes Sam Harper to rise from the dead and kill during the July 4th celebrations. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

I like to watch date specific horror films during the times of the year that their stories occur. The Fog (1980) deals with an event on April 21st. The date for Bloody Birthday (1981) is June 9th. Urban Legend (1998) is concerned with a college anniversary of an April 23rd atrocity. Of course, there are obvious holiday candidates such as Black Christmas (1974) and My Bloody Valentine (1981), but did you know that Dr. Orloff’s Monster (1964) also takes place during Christmas and that the menace of X-Ray (1982) began on Valentine’s Day? Let’s not forget the date specific film franchises of Halloween and Friday the 13th. The selection of fright flicks that take place during the United States’ Independence Day holiday are pretty sparse, but there are some to choose from, such as Frogs (1972), Jaws (1975), The Return of the Living Dead (1985), and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). The most overtly July 4th themed horror film is Uncle Sam.

This movie has really grown on me over the years. Uncle Sam is a supernatural slasher flick that I first felt was just a little too arbitrary with its fantasy element. However, upon repeated viewings, I have appreciated that writer Larry Cohen has contrived a lot of incidents, traditions, and character traumas that accidentally combine to realize the dark magic of its undead menace. There is more going on here than just a patriotic version of Jason Voorhees.

It takes quite a while for Sam Harper’s body count to get underway, and I think that is just fine. His nephew Jody’s hero worship and accidental dripping of his own blood on a signed photo of his Uncle Sam, the July 4th holiday, the lack of mourning from other members of Sam’s family, and local sentiments that disrespect patriotic tradition or question nationalism are all combining to enable the magical resurrection of soldier Sgt. Sam Harper. War hero Sam Harper has severe personality faults and grievances. They react to the accumulation of “anti-American” sentiments and behavior in his community to provide the impetus that drives this monster out of his casket to commence his murder spree. Like the best slasher movie villains, there is a strong motivation for the killer’s MO. Unlike a simple EC Comics story of a corpse returning from the dead simply because it wants revenge with no reason provided for that supernatural feat, the Uncle Sam story mixes together a lot of attitudes, behaviors, and traditions that accidentally combine to create the dark zeitgeist that empowers the supernatural phenomenon of Sam Harper’s reanimation. It is still an utterly fantastic event, but the film tries to justify its cause. 

Writer Larry Cohen and director William Lustig are also taking the time to present the themes that this movie is really about that gives the audience something to mull over. They present a child protagonist that demonstrates how naïve it is to glorify war and unquestioning nationalism. They also present the dark side of some military figures and the cynicism of some civilians. All of these characters are a part of the country’s institutions or engage in the patriotic celebrations, yet that does not validate their character and behavior. 

Like all of the best holiday themed slasher films, Uncle Sam finds plenty of holiday traditions and symbols to riff on. This provides much of the fun to be found in the story. The festive July 4th pastimes of barbeques, live music, fireworks, parades, and community gatherings are threatened by the deadly presence of the undead Uncle Sam.

There is also plenty of dark humor to be found in the various characters’ cynicism and hypocrisies. Unsavory and petty conduct by people in uniform (Bo Hopkins and Matthew Flint), vain and opportunistic conduct by a politician (Robert Forster), tax cheating enabled by a lawyer (Tim Grimm), and disrespect shown to the American flag and the national anthem are all punished. I enjoy the fates that some of these jerks suffer, yet I still realize that there is also a very evil nationalism doling out the punishment. Even by the purest standards of patriotism, not all of Sam’s victims deserve what they get. Writer Cohen brings a unique sense of unease to many of his films by tweaking subject matter often considered sacred such as childbirth in It’s Alive (1974), religion and divinity in God Told Me To (1976), and patriotism in Uncle Sam. 

Lest anyone think that Uncle Sam is nothing more than an anti-military film, it also has the Korean War veteran character Sgt. Jed Crowley played by Isaac Hayes. This character is sympathetic and presents the good side of the American military man. He makes the case that war is not about macho glory and that the reasons for these conflicts are not always clear, which could mean that they are not always justified. 

Uncle Sam is not meant to be an America bashing film. It is a nationalism bashing film. It is examining the conflicted feelings about the nation’s wartime past and present. It makes the point that flags, uniforms, and traditions do not validate national policy or justify war.

Despite these sober concerns, Uncle Sam does not forget to be a fun and nasty horror film. Once it establishes its dark themes and its zombie villain, it lets loose. From a patriotic Peeping Tom on stilts to the worst performance of the national anthem ever, Uncle Sam amuses at the same time it abuses the nation’s holiday traditions.