Q (1982)

[Mike Morbid]

This is not something you would expect in an eighties horror movie. Giant monsters were all the rage in the fifties and sixties, then dwindled during the seventies. By the time 1980 rolled around the focus was on slashers.

In the great Roger Ebert’s review of this movie, he wrote the following anecdote. Another critic, Rex Reed (who doesn’t like horror movies, boo hiss) was talking to Q’s producer, Samuel Z. Arkoff. Reed said that the movie was dreck surrounding a great performance by Michael Moriarty. Arkoff gave this response.

“The dreck was my idea.”

Joining Moriarty are Richard Roundtree and David Carradine, who sadly does no kung fu to the giant flying serpent.

The plot is murky, though that might be due to the bad sound quality of the streaming. Moriarty is a minor criminal who discovers the creatures’ nest while on the run. Why he chose to flee to the abandoned tip of a skyscraper is beyond me. Roundtree and Carradine are cops investigating ceremonial sacrifices that have summoned the huge beast. When they later bring him to the station for an unrelated crime, he overhears them discussing their main investigation and decides to use his knowledge for freedom and profit.

Meanwhile, Q is partaking of the local cuisine. There are a number of good morsels who happen to be on rooftops of tall buildings, and it takes full advantage of the snacking opportunities. I really liked one shot of people on the street being pelted with blood and trying to figure out from where it is coming.

This leads us to my big problem with the movie. Giant monster movies are best when they are about wide-scale carnage and spectacle. When I see a behemoth in a city, I expect to see lots of property damage and large groups of panicked people fleeing through the streets. The destruction and the danger should be epic. There should be battles between the monster and an increasingly desperate military.

In Q, the monster just eats the occasional person and defends its nest. It does not seem like a force of nature. Other than the final confrontation, it does not seem to pose more of a threat than a human serial killer. Even in the showdown most of the cops don’t seem to be in much danger as long as they are careful about what they are doing.

Another issue I had is with Moriarty’s crook. My problem isn’t with the acting, it is with how unlikeable the guy is. He is a whiny loser who abuses his girlfriend. He expects people to be sympathetic to him despite him being perfectly willing to let innocent people die to the monster while he is negotiating a deal before he reveals its location. At the end, we see no sign that he has learned to care about anything other than his own convenience, but the cops let him go with a ‘what a character’ attitude. I wanted to see him get some kind of comeuppance.

I just wasn’t impressed with Q. It was slow with little action, I wasn’t invested in any of the characters, and the monster was nowhere near the beast it should have been. I have to say it, this movie laid an egg.

[endo]

I saw this movie as a kid with my sister in the theater, even as a kid I knew this movie wasn't very good. It's downfall is it's not even a so bad it's good movie, it's just bad.
If anyone is interested in seeing what Mike Morbid and myself already have, it's in the movie time thread, I think.

I did not care for this movie, but, who knows, maybe some will.

Edit: Couldn't find it in the movie time thread, so I added it. Everyone should suffer through it.

[Smeets]

Everyone should suffer through it.

endo the torturer. i'm Frightened to watch it cause it's bad, lol, not because it is horror, so in a way it might be the best horror movie ever.

[endo]

I hope you hate it...