Film

Q

Name: Q
Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery
Released: 1982
Cast: Michael Moriarty, Candy Clark, David Carradine, Richard Roundtree, James Dixon

A B-movie collision of crime noir and creature horror: a small-time crook stumbles onto a nest of Quetzalcoatl—the Aztec feathered serpent—lurking in the Chrysler Building. Part schlock, part genuine menace, entirely committed to the absurdity of a man-eating god in Manhattan. It's pulpy, wonderfully weird, and played entirely straight.

TMDb rating

2.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy scrappy, tongue-in-cheek monster movies where the city itself becomes the set, and a small-time crook matters more than the creature.

Skip it if you need slick modern effects or tight pacing, since the creature work looks its age and the middle wanders through loose, episodic detours.

What it asks of you: Roughly ninety-three minutes of unhurried street-level wandering, with the monster surfacing in bursts; you need to accept a loose, talky rhythm before the scares land.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Ghostbusters1984

Same period New York, same mix of horror and comedy, same genuine craft underneath the mayhem. A creature movie that trusts both the scares and the laughs to land.

But It's polished blockbuster entertainment—less rough, less strange, less willing to let the weirdness sit uncomfortably.

Tremors1990

Monster-in-the-American-landscape adventure with the same B-movie DNA and self-aware tone. Practical creature effects, mounting dread, ordinary people versus something that shouldn't exist.

But Much cleaner and more conventionally entertaining. It was made for a wider audience and shows.

The Hidden1987

Alien creature loose in Los Angeles; cop buddy picture meets sci-fi horror. Grimy, kinetic, genuinely unsettling despite its low budget. Same era energy as Q.

But Body horror and gore turn some people off. It's also more aggressively weird than you might expect from its premise.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Q

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Eolomea1972

Both are films that ask you to accept a mythic or alien logic operating underneath urban reality. Both trust silence and strangeness over explanation. Both feel like they're from a cinema that no longer exists.

Hungarian science-fiction epic about contact with an alien intelligence. Slow, philosophical, visually hypnotic. A tone poem rather than a plot, utterly transfixing if you surrender to it.

But It's 142 minutes of deliberate pacing with minimal dialogue and no conventional action. Some will find it gorgeous; others will find it a trial.

Anaconda1997

A giant creature movie that leans into its own pulpiness. Jon Voight chewing the scenery, a boat, jungle dread. Entertainment that knows exactly what it is.

But By the 1990s, CGI shows its age badly. The effects will pull you out more than practical gore would.

The Lair of the White Worm1988

Ken Russell's genuinely unhinged take on Bram Stoker; serpentine deity worship and sexual horror. As committed to its own derangement as Q is.

But It's deliberately transgressive and nasty. If you want comfort, this isn't it. Also strange in ways that feel purely personal to Russell.

Venom1981

Snake-in-a-townhouse siege film from the same moment in cinema. Klaus Kinski, Sterling Hayden, genuine tension. Low-budget horror that sweats.

But The pace sags in the middle. It's more static than Q, more claustrophobic, which doesn't suit everyone.

Alligator1980

Urban creature horror—a giant gator in the Chicago sewers. Smart, funny, efficient. John Sayles wrote it. A model of B-movie competence.

But It's straightforward creature entertainment. Lacks the mythological strangeness that makes Q memorable.

Possession1981

Both use a grotesque creature as a way to externalize something internal and unknowable. Both see monsters as something that emerges from the cracks of the city. Same year, opposite approach.

Andrzej Żuławski's masterpiece of marriage-horror and metaphysical dread. A creature emerges from the subconscious of a failing marriage. Visually baroque, emotionally savage, utterly singular.

But It's graphic and deeply unsettling—not just horror, but psychological cruelty. The practical creature effects are grotesque. It demands you sit with discomfort.

Vampyr1932

Both films are interested in a fugitive discovering something older and hungrier than the modern city can contain. Both use location—New York, a small town—as a character. Both are about incomprehension in the face of the inexplicable.

Carl Theodor Dreyer's phantom of a vampire film—suggestion and shadow instead of fangs. A fugitive stumbles into a town where something is wrong in ways he can't articulate. Pure nightmare logic.

But It's 75 minutes of dread without explanation. No action, minimal plot, a film that trusts unease over catharsis. Silent cinema grammar will alienate modern viewers.