The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

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.

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!

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.