Writer/director Larry Cohen is a huge weirdo. So is lead actor Michael Moriarty. So is this film’s nutcase in a bird mask who stages pagan rituals to conjure up an ancient snake-bird that eats construction workers and topless sunbather ladies. Put ’em all together in New York City in 1982 and you’ve got one of the finest bizarros of the time. It’s roughly 20% dead bodies and 80% deadpan humor. If you’re not laughing at Michael Moriarty’s amazing big city loudmouth (he’d seriously hold his own with any Scorsese character ever) and Larry Cohen’s crazy death scenes and oddball editing jokes, you might not be fully getting this one. It’s a great movie that’s even better when you know that Cohen scrambled in short order to get it together after he got fired from a Mickey Spillane adaptation, I, the Jury. If it didn’t have a giant bird eating peoples’ heads off and was made for more than $200, this would be one of the top comedies of the 80s. It’s THAT good. David Carradine, Richard Roundtree and Candy Clark round out the terrific cult movie cast.