Q

The general plot here is more or less the same as the Kolchak episode "Legacy Of Terror," only this time with the flying serpent instead of a new world mummy.  People are volunteering to be sacrificed by a modern Aztec priest--only it's the cops who are left to try and figure out why, not a newspaper man.  Almost quite coincidentally mutilations are taking place in broad day light and people report catching sight of the something strange in the sky--this quite apart from the bodies missing their hearts and sometimes their skin.  Before we know what's happening, the winged monster basically acquires a "Renfield" in the form of a washed up criminal jazz piano player (Michael Moriarty).  This is a Larry Cohen film--I've been a fan of his brand of independent horror for sometime now, and I really enjoy this film, despite it's flaws.  It, like most "horrors" based on Aztec ritual gets stuff pretty scrambled up.  "Q" of course, stands for Quetzalcoatl.  Yet many of the sacrificed humans have been completely skinned--or rather "flayed."  The film actually gets this particular ritual correct, but attributes it to the wrong god.  In realty the god that required flaying as part of the sacrificial act was Xipe Totec--a god of new life (sort of like the deity of spring).  After the heart sacrifice took place, the high priest of Xipe Totec's teocalli would then flay the skin away from the body and then don it until it rotted off.  Several Spaniards that encountered a few of the individuals couldn't help but remake on the smell.  "Xipe Totec"--whose color is red and direction is east--translates into English as "Our Lord, the Flayed One."

Red Tezcatlipoca:  Xipe Totec from codex

Xipe Totec ritual

The above famous statue was made during the reign of the Triple Alliance AKA Aztec Empire.  It depicts an actual priest wearing the skin of a person sacrificed to Xipe Totec.