THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (3 outta 5 stars) Black and white low budget homage to really bad 1950s science fiction/ horror films. Wait! Wait! It's not as awful as you'd think! Granted, it's very difficult to make a watchable movie when you are trying to make it "bad" on purpose. It is so much more fun to watch an *actual* bad movie from the 50s than to watch post-modern semi-talents try to imitate them, nudging and winking at the camera the whole time. But I will admit that this movie is much better than other attempts I've seen. The cast is not completely free of that "nudge, wink" syndrome (though they claim otherwise) but, for the most part, their characterizations are well-conceived. The actors playing aliens Kro-Bar and Lattis and human/animal hybrid "Animala" are particularly good. You could swear their characters actually ARE in a badly-acted movie from the era. The other performers are generally less successful. The plot is complete nonsense... aliens crashland on earth and lose their pet mutant. In their search they cross paths with skeptical human scientists as well as the re-birth of a crazed mind-controlling skeleton. Extremely bad special effects (of course)... though the movie itself does a fairly good job of reproducing the retro black and white style. Can be lots of fun if you are in the mood for something like this.
Review of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
