Editorials
[It Came From the ’80s] An American Kaiju: ‘Q- The Winged Serpent’
With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
Compared to Japan’s vast selection of Kaiju films, there are very few giant monster films stateside. Larry Cohen’s 1982 film about a winged serpent terrorizing the Chrysler Building belongs in that small club. At first glance, it looks more like a Ray Harryhausen throwback with its stop-motion Claymation beast, but this cult film is every bit of Cohen’s brand of ballsy filmmaking. A gritty New York police procedural centered around a couple of NYPD detectives, a crook, and ritualistic Aztec murder that just happens to have an Aztec god nesting in one of the most recognizable skyscrapers in America come together in one strange film that can only be attributed to Cohen, in another story of the behind the scenes becoming more fascinating than the film itself.
Initially, Cohen didn’t set out to make Q. At least, not yet. He was in New York to direct I, the Jury, a film on which he wrote the screenplay. He didn’t get along with the producers however, and the film went over budget very quickly, so he was fired only a week into production. Instead of leaving town, he decided to stay and make another movie. So, after a mere few days of pre-production, including preparing a shooting script, he began shooting Q. He sent a telegram to David Carradine telling him when to show up, and that he would be playing a New York detective. Carradine had always wanted to make a movie with his longtime friend, so he showed up only becoming aware that he’d signed up for a monster movie right as he was to begin filming. Michael Moriarty, who plays crook Jimmy Quinn, was hired simply because Cohen was a fan of his and happened to bump into him at a café in New York during pre-production.
It summed up Cohen’s approach; he’s a director who knows what he wants and he’ll find a way to get it regardless of opposition or obstacles. He refused to take no for an answer when seeking permission to shoot in the Chrysler Building, but after the sixth or so time of asking and offering them enough money, they agreed. Even then, they didn’t realize just how high up Cohen intended to go. The unsteady spire atop the building wasn’t the most secure place for the crew to go, but Cohen reasoned that the budget didn’t really allow room to build a safer duplicate to shoot.
After wrapping up the shoot in a few weeks, it was then that he approached Randy Cook (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), who then pulled in David Allen (Ghostbusters, Fright Night), on the special effects with a concept for the monster. Understandably, they weren’t thrilled with having to animate a modeled creature after the film had already been shot, considering the method typically required shots to be blocked out on where the actors and monsters should go before actually shooting. That the shots were often moving, not frozen in place, made Cook and Allen’s job even more difficult. Considering the parameters they had to work with and the budget, the human eating, flying Quetzalcoatl turned out really well.
Compared to most horror films of this decade, Q- The Winged Serpent looks a bit more dated and of its time due to the stop-motion effects. But it’s so strange and so very Cohen that it makes sense that it would gain a cult following. Cohen took a job firing and turned it into a brand-new project, and it gives a whole new perspective on the work produced by special effects teams.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Kraus took the literary world by storm back in 2023 with the release of his hit novel Whalefall. A terrifying yet intimate survival thriller with mythological undertones, the book was almost immediately bombarded with offers from movie studios wanting to adapt its claustrophobic imagery to the big screen.
Fast forward to June of 2026, and we finally got our first glimpse at Brian Duffield’s long-awaited adaptation of Whalefall, starring Austin Abrams as our unfortunate lead who gets swallowed alive by a sperm whale. While this two-and-a-half-minute teaser only covers the beginning of the story, it’s already been making waves online (and in-person at select 4DX promotional screenings) as one of the most stressful cinematic experiences of the year.
In fact, my own wife had to cover her eyes and exclaim, “You’re definitely not dragging me to watch this one” when we saw the whale’s jaws begin to close in on Abrams, with this incident alone already leaving me convinced that this will likely be one of the biggest genre hits of the year. With that in mind, I’d like to invite you to take a closer look at the teaser in order to break down interesting details and get a better idea of what’s in store for genre fans when the movie finally comes out this October.
Of course, as usual, don’t forget to comment below if you noticed something we didn’t!
Now, without further ado, here are five things we learned from the Whalefall trailer!
5. Austin Abrams Performed Many of His Own Stunts
Much like in his previous film, No One Will Save You, Duffield insisted that this visceral experience should be grounded by our main character’s believable reactions, regardless of the plot’s effects-heavy setup. That’s why the camera always makes sure to linger on Abrams through his diving mask, so we know that it’s really him going through this ordeal alongside the audience.
While plenty of CGI was used in order to bring this larger-than-life story to the big screen without killing our leading man, Abrams apparently insisted on performing many of his underwater stunts himself (several of which are visible in the trailer) – much to the chagrin of a worried Duffield and the flick’s stunt coordinator, Shauna Duggins.
4. The Film Seamlessly Transitions Between the California Coast and Underwater Sets
Duffield obviously wasn’t about to drag his crew out to the middle of the ocean and shoot inside a real sperm whale, but it’s reassuring to see the filmmaker blend on-location footage with the underwater tank segments and the literal belly of the whale set.
There may be plenty of CGI stitching these elements together, but the trailer shows us that only the truly impossible shots are completely digital, meaning that the filmmakers didn’t take the easy way out when it came to adapting this unique story.
3. The Whale is Only Part of the Story
Book adaptations tend to leave out inner monologues and the occasional flashback in order to streamline the narrative (which is one reason why it’s so difficult to translate Stephen King novels to the big screen), but a claustrophobic parable like Kraus’ Whalefall would get a bit dull after a while if the whole thing was entirely set within the creature’s stomach.
That’s why it’s such a relief that the trailer hints at how Duffield will also be adapting many of the book’s introspective moments chronicling our protagonist’s harsh upbringing under his troubled father. Not only do these inclusions give the audience some much-appreciated breathing room, but they also give Josh Brolin a chance to shine as a truly complicated character.
2. The Movie is Keeping the Book’s Scientific Accuracy…
While Kraus’ novel was inspired by a viral video of kayakers nearly being swallowed by a humpback whale, the writer ended up consulting with marine biologists about exactly what kind of situation might lead to a whale actually eating a human being alive.
The answer was surprisingly specific, as cetaceans are almost universally known to be friendly towards humans. However, even a gentle giant can make mistakes, and as we see in the trailer, Abrams’ unpleasant fate is more of an accident than anything else – with the massive sperm whale only trapping the poor diver in the first (and thankfully acid-free) chamber of its stomach due to a mix-up involving a giant squid.
Fortunately for the film’s special effects artists, they can now reference the first-ever footage of a real-life sperm whale chowing down on one such squid, as this freaky recording was released late last year.
1. …With a Catch!
Duffield may be doing his best to recreate the grounded (or is it submerged?) thrills of Kraus’ novel, but there are limits to what can be depicted onscreen while still guaranteeing an entertaining movie. That’s why it’s no surprise that Whalefall will take advantage of certain cinematic parlor tricks as the director tests the limits of both physics and biology so we can actually watch his movie.
For starters, the innards of the whale itself have been greatly exaggerated so there’s enough space to make out the action, and in the spirit of movies like Neil Marshall’s The Descent, there also seems to be plenty of non-diegetic lighting meant to show us what’s going on even if Abram’s character wouldn’t necessarily be able to see anything.
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