The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

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!

Oh well

I am seriously in awe of this movie. Not only does it have a weird, twisted sense of humor that I share, but the filmmaker carried it out to the end, and that is no small feat. A lark turned into a proper movie.

Yes it's a silly 1950's b-movies hommage, but I posit this is more than that. This is proper senseless humor, so-bad-its-good entertainment, with dialog and situations that teeter between hysterical and uncomfortable, achieving greatness in the process.

This is a movie from which I want to memorize every line, knowing only a few people will find it funny. But I share a lot with those who do.

My only problem is with the picture quality -- this looks like bad, grainy digital picture. I would rather have it looking analog. I understand that this would have cost more, but it's distracting as far as I'm concerned, and it loses some of its appeal in the process.

That said, this is a genuine hysterical movie. Please enjoy this rare treat with people who have a similarly twisted sense of humor.

Too bad for the others.

Oh well.

Ps- Animala, we all love you.

That's what it was supposed to be and that's what it succeeds at. As a die hard fan of B- movies from the 50s, I felt like I could have made this movie, but I wouldn't have done as good a job. With a microbudget and a script written in five days, the filmmakers had all the right ingredients for a delightful send up.

The cheesy dialogue and deliberately awkward moments are true gems and it is obvious that this is a real labor of love, a collaborative effort between a group of friends who just wanted to make something fun.

No pretensions, no car chases, no show-offy special effects, no Hollywood celebrities chewing the scenery and trying to make themselves look sexy all the time. This film is an example of the kind of movies made by fans for the fans, with no kowtowing to political correctness, celebrity egos, or the lowest common denominator.

If you love Ed Wood, Robot Monster and Catwomen on the Moon, this film will split your sides with laughter. If not, I implore you to cast aside Lindsey Lohan and Ashton Kutcher for an afternoon and try something new.

`Betty, you know what this meteor could mean to science. It could mean actual advances in the field of science'. I laughed so hard my teeth hurt. Unfortunately, the world is full of knuckle dragging mouth breathers who are not capable of appreciating fine parody. If you are a knuckle dragging mouth breather (or a big Ashton Kutcher fan) you are going to hate this movie.

Be warned, there are gigantic plot holes. The acting is wooden to say the least. The special effects are not at all special and look like they could have been done by a 10 year old. All of the clichés are covered. The woman runs around in high heels and faints at the first sign of danger. There is an evil scientist, aliens (from another planet), a mutant, and a skeleton. And let's not forget Animala (rowrr). Made up of four woodland creatures, she steals the show. In short, it is an incredibly accurate and funny send-up of 50's drive-in movies.

I recommend it to those with a more advanced sense of humor.

I knew this was going to be very much an homage/parody-type of movie, but I still expected to be disappointed, overall; however, I was not. I was amazed at how authentic the cast and crew was about this film.

I presume most people won't like this movie because most people would not know how to appreciate it.

The dialogue in the movie is very well-done, as well as overdone, but that was just fine with me, because I understand the homagesness (I know that's not a real word, but I don't know how to say "dedication to honouring the silliness of old b-movie cheesiness").

I must admit that another portion of this film that totally captivated me was Jennifer Blaire (Animala), but I know I'd still adore the movie, even if she was not part of it.

I've only seen one other movie in my life that seemed to have the same kind of dedication to the "legend" or "spirit" of old, no-budget sci-fi movies, which is "Invasion", but that movie was not as dedicated. "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" had the B&W applied to it, and there was no cussing or violence either. Even though I'm a horror movie fan and violence really never bugs me, I didn't miss it while watching this movie, because this movie was so darn dedicated (how many times have I used that word so far?). These kind of movies are either hit-or-miss; I've seen a few movies in the 90's that tried to do the same thing, and they were ultra-terrible. You just need to have the right-minded folks at the keyboard and behind and in front of the camera, and "Lost Skeleton" has it.