The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

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

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.

I really liked this movie, and I think those of us old enough to remember the awful sci-fi films shown on TV on the weekends (in the afternoons and, especially, late at night, when the TV stations figured no one sane or sober was watching) can really appreciate the satire. Dialog isn't the only thing that is parodied, although the purposely stilted, strained dialog here is very funny. I also enjoy the clunky editing - the long close-ups, the awkward reaction shots - as well as the claustrophobic scenery and the props that look like whatever happened to be in someone's garage at the time. The people who made this film have apparently seen and studied many of these old sci-fi/horror films, and have made an affectionate and accurate send-up of the genre. Lack of subtlety was a hallmark of such films, and the makers here get it just right.

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!

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.