The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

Odd flick. Quite obviously a spoof of all bad 1950's creature and space movies, so watching it can be arduous at times. However, it's always a fun ride. There are at least two or three very, very funny parts.

This is a very low budget, funny movie, because of the send up of dialogue, rather then jokes and one liners as an example..."I don't know Betty, I guess from now on I should stick to science and leave battling alien mutants to experts." or "My wife sometimes forgets she's not a space alien". The costumes and sets are reminiscent of the low budget movies as well. The costume design on the three headed mutant was mind blowing. I needed to watch the credits just to find out that a MAN was in the mutant suit...the design was that convincing! ONe last quote to leave with..."Well, if I wanted a safe life, I guess I wouldn't have married a man who studies rocks and you know the way I figure, if it's a way to stop my new alien best friend from becoming a widow and married to a skeleton then, count me in Mister Scientist." Fold yourself in the middle and enjoy this movie, just know what you're about to get into before you start watching it.

I just saw this film last weekend at the 19th Annual 24 hour Ohio Science Fiction Marathon in Columbus - it was a lot of fun! A very amusing camp send-up of old SF films. I particularly liked Jennifer Blaire as "Animale",who was transmogrified into a sensual woman clad in black from 4 woodland animals - and quite the dancer to boot!

Dead-on spoof of bad b movies is just done so perfectly. Close ups are too close, edits are too slow, minor points are hammered home. It's as though the director has seen every bad movie every made and crammed them all into this one movie. He doesn't go for cheap laughs like technical screwups, it's actually the equivalent of a relatively well made grade z horror movie. It plays it all straight, although the movie will occasionally go ahead and throw in a laugh that's a little too smart for this type of movie.

This movie isn't any funnier than a true bad movie like Plan 9 from Outer Space, but it is more consistently funny. Real bad movies generally have some scenes so badly done that they are hysterical but also scenes that are just mediocre and tedious, but Skeleton keeps that so-awful-it's-wonderful feel throughout.

The director has proved he can create a very smart bad movie. I'll be curious to see what happens when he tries to create a good movie. 7/10

It was my turn to pick up a couple of rental movies last night, and when I saw the cover art, complete with the "Filmed in Skeletorama!" proclamation, I just couldn't resist. Upon my return, the wife sez, "What did you get?" "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" sez I. She looked askance at me. She continued to look askance until about five minutes into the movie, by which time she had resorted to laughing herself to tears. As a quick summary of our take on the movie, the wife, who has never been a cheesy 50s scifi movie fan nor an MST2 or 3K fan, wants to buy a copy for our very own.

I've read most of the comments, and those few who didn't much care for this offering really seem to miss the point. The first thing we wondered was how difficult it must have been for competent, perhaps extremely talented actors to revert to consistently and truly bad acting. Our second thought was that however difficult it was, they must have had a heckuva blast doing it. Some reviewers complained of dull passages and of sections of dialogue that went on too long or were over done. Of course! But if ya didn't get, well, I guess ya just didn't get it.

The faithfulness to the 50s look and feel was wonderfully done, with the only exception - in my opinion - being the skeleton's smart-assishness. Evil creatures in the referenced genre were unfailingly pompous, but they weren't smart-assed. A couple of high points for me that I didn't see anyone mention: the stock nature footage of the squirrels, with the same footage run twice back to back of course; the mutator/caulking gun and the chest-high shots of the skeleton leading Animala and the mad scientist through the canyon all had us in stitches. Special thanks to those responsible for choosing to shoot in Bronson Canyon, which really should be declared the nation's first cheesy historic landmark.

Guess I'd better go now - I'm a bit thirsty (tip tip tip tip tip) and need to tend to my Amish terrarium.

P.S. If you get the DVD, please take the time to view the special features - and also go to the website to check out the memorabilia - it's wonderful!

10/10 rating

Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is a remarkable little film that recreates the look and feel of old low-budget black and white sci fi films, but it has a refreshing spirit all its own that is smart and silly at the same time. You've never seen a film like this before. It's the best new film I've seen in years.

Lost Skeleton is fun in its own right because it takes the archetypes of sci fi and its cliché's and mixes them together to make something that is more entertaining than straight parody.

Those who look at Lost Skeleton as only parody or a recreation of old movies are missing Blamire's unique accomplishment. It's a mixture of late 50's pompousness and innocence with modern perspective and grace.

Done in good taste that reflects the boy-scout best of the 50's genre, the movie is unlike anything else that Hollywood or indies are putting out. It's refreshing, inviting, friendly, goofy, and true to a singular vision.

I've seen it now with four different small audiences, and for the most part everyone has enjoyed it immensely. You need to view this film with a group to get the most out of it--it's easily the most quotable movie I've ever seen. Blamire's sense of those delightfully absurd pitfalls many sci-fi writers have fallen into time and again is uncanny. Halfway between Shakespeare and Ed Wood, almost every line of dialogue is a wooden comic gem laced with a sense of sweetness rather than mean-spiritedness. It's hard to tell where the parody ends and the celebration of these loftily ambitious lines begins.

This makes the film a joy to watch again and again. Blamire is hitting something deeper than a stiff sci-fi parody, and his touch makes this a much greater film than on the surface it has any right to be.

I predict that Lost Skeleton will go the way of Young Frankenstein and establish itself as a comedy classic over the next couple of decades. It's just that good. Perhaps indescribably good, but I did my best.