AllMovie

This threadbare PRC production plays like an Aztec variant on the studio's earlier Devil Bat, with PRC favorite George Zucco assaying the Bela Lugosi role. Zucco plays mad archaeologist Andrew Forbes, who stumbles upon the nest of a monstrous winged serpent -- the apparent source for the myth of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl -- while on a dig in Mexico. After the creature seeks out and kills his wife to recover one of its missing feathers, Forbes learns that he can eliminate his enemies (and protect a cache of plundered Aztec treasure) by planting one such plume on their person and letting Quetzalcoatl do the rest. Like most PRC quickies, this one is painfully cheap but quaintly entertaining; credited director Sherman Scott is actually prolific B-movie journeyman Sam Newfield. The Quetzalcoatl myth would be more cleverly mined by horror auteur Larry Cohen 35 years later in his low-budget monster-fest Q.