l_84556_ed59bb89Today marks the release of a truly essential blu-ray as Q: The Winged Serpent hits shelves for the first time. Winged Aztec Gods look their best in 1080p, after all.

The Larry Cohen film has long been one of the pillars of the CHUD pantheon. Warranting inclusion in the very first entry of the CHUD Essentials list all those years ago, it was also a part of Nick’s monster movie list in ’08. The David Carradine, Richard Roundtree, Quetzalcoatl and Michael Moriarty vehicle is one of the great ’80s creature features, and we couldn’t be happier to see it make it’s way into this the high-def future.

Along with grabbing the new disc for yourself (which helps us out, if you use that link), I’d encourage you to mosey over to The Dissolve, where they have a fantastically assembled oral history of the film. Awesome tidbits from Cohen himself are peppered with recollections from the living actors, plus excerpts from interviews with Carradine prior to his death.

Cohen: They also told me, “Oh, you can’t have the camera moving if the monster’s gonna be in the picture. The shot has to be frozen. You have to have a lockdown shot.” I said, “Well, you can’t have a lockdown shot when it’s taken from a helicopter flying around the Chrysler Building, so you’re gonna have to learn how to do it.” So they learned how to do it, and they did it. A lot of this was a matter of reeducation. I guess I did it all wrong, but I made it come out right!

Happy Q-Day!