There can never be enough love in this world for an underrated filmmaker like
Larry Cohen, so excuse me while I briefly plug this release of his 1982 monster flick
Q the Winged Serpent. Modern viewers may recognise his name on the screenwriting credits of films like
Phone Booth and
Cellular, but a few decades earlier, when Cohen was in his prime, he was cranking out one terrific B-movie after another: everything from gritty blaxploitationers (
Black Caesar,
Hell Up in Harlem) to horror gems (
It's Alive,
God Told Me To) to offbeat thrillers (
Perfect Strangers,
Special Effects).
The low budgets of his films didn't always meet his ambitions, but this rarely mattered when he could pull off genre pics with the sort of scrappy charm, economy and personality that's sorely missing from contemporary filmmaking. A fan favourite,
Q, with its herky-jerky
Harryhausen-style creature effects, is a perfect example of Cohen's work. Hats off again to
Vendetta Films for putting it out on DVD and Blu-ray! Check out the trailer below (taken from an old Roadshow VHS tape):
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