Made for an inconceivably paltry $40,000 and change, "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" is a spoof of all those low budget sci-fi monster movies that played on double bills (usually in drive-ins) in the 1950's. Many of those films achieved renewed life on Creature Features-type TV shows during the 1960's and 1970's, and eventually ended up as fodder for ridicule on "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Filmed in glorious black and white, "Skeleton" tells the tale of a scientist and his wife who head to the mountains to locate a recently landed meteorite out of which he hopes to extract a rare and precious element known as "atmosphereum" (though no one can explain, with any degree of specificity, what it is exactly that the precious element does). At the same time, two outer space aliens land in the forest near where the couple is staying and accidentally unleash one of those infamous rubberized mutants into the area, who proceeds to terrorize the local citizenry and carry the heroine off in a gesture of interspecies romantic attachment. Finally, we have the mysterious Lost Skeleton of Cadavra itself which has been left lying dormant in a cave just waiting for someone to bring it the atmosphereum it needs to put some get-up-and-go into it.
Given the sheer silliness of the premise, I wish I could say that I liked "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" more than I did. For one thing, the movie does a beautiful job capturing the look, sound and overall ambiance of the films it is parodying, and, for that, director Larry Blamire and cinematographer Kevin F. Jones deserve hearty praise. In addition to the black and white photography, the film captures with perfect fidelity the atrocious costuming and chintzy special effects that served as the hallmarks of that benighted genre.
The problem, however, is that once the style has been established, Blamire, as the film's writer, doesn't seem to know quite what to do with it. Although the deliberately flat and corny dialogue and the arch mannerisms of the actors are amusing for awhile, after about the first fifteen minutes or so, we get the point and want the film to move on. We laugh the first time we hear the scientist declare generically, "I've come out here to do science," but after about the third time around, the joke loses its freshness. The film also does an effective job satirizing gender roles in the 1950's as well as the preposterous way in which sci-fi movies from that time period used generic-sounding terms to make themselves appear to be scientifically literate. Again, all that is funny at first, but it wears thin very quickly. Indeed, from past experience we've discovered that this sort of movie genre parody seems to work best in small doses; when it is dragged out to the extent of a full length feature film, it overstays its welcome.
This is not to denigrate the actors who have a blast hamming it up for the camera, and I do really appreciate what it is the makers of "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" are trying to do. The problem is that it's never very easy to make good movies out of bad, and this film, once the novelty of it has worn off, becomes just about as unendurable as the movies it is parodying. Perhaps the filmmakers fell victim to that old conundrum of trying to make fun of something that is already laughable to begin with.
Any moviemaker who can produce something even halfway decent out of little more than baling wire and a shoestring budget deserves our admiration and support. Thus, the makers of "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" at least get points for trying, if not for succeeding in their endeavor.
Given the sheer silliness of the premise, I wish I could say that I liked "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" more than I did. For one thing, the movie does a beautiful job capturing the look, sound and overall ambiance of the films it is parodying, and, for that, director Larry Blamire and cinematographer Kevin F. Jones deserve hearty praise. In addition to the black and white photography, the film captures with perfect fidelity the atrocious costuming and chintzy special effects that served as the hallmarks of that benighted genre.
The problem, however, is that once the style has been established, Blamire, as the film's writer, doesn't seem to know quite what to do with it. Although the deliberately flat and corny dialogue and the arch mannerisms of the actors are amusing for awhile, after about the first fifteen minutes or so, we get the point and want the film to move on. We laugh the first time we hear the scientist declare generically, "I've come out here to do science," but after about the third time around, the joke loses its freshness. The film also does an effective job satirizing gender roles in the 1950's as well as the preposterous way in which sci-fi movies from that time period used generic-sounding terms to make themselves appear to be scientifically literate. Again, all that is funny at first, but it wears thin very quickly. Indeed, from past experience we've discovered that this sort of movie genre parody seems to work best in small doses; when it is dragged out to the extent of a full length feature film, it overstays its welcome.
This is not to denigrate the actors who have a blast hamming it up for the camera, and I do really appreciate what it is the makers of "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" are trying to do. The problem is that it's never very easy to make good movies out of bad, and this film, once the novelty of it has worn off, becomes just about as unendurable as the movies it is parodying. Perhaps the filmmakers fell victim to that old conundrum of trying to make fun of something that is already laughable to begin with.
Any moviemaker who can produce something even halfway decent out of little more than baling wire and a shoestring budget deserves our admiration and support. Thus, the makers of "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" at least get points for trying, if not for succeeding in their endeavor.