Larry Blamire’s “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra” is a spot-on homage/parody of bad 1950’s sci-fi movies. The opening credits are really cool and feature animated skulls that flip and spin around to an amazing soundtrack and the film opens in nicely shot black and white digital video. However, after about 15 minutes of glossy faux-50’s style dialogue, I got the joke and just didn’t find it funny enough to last 90 minutes.
Paul Armstrong (Blamire) is a scientist who, along with his hottie wife Betty (Fay Masterson), are looking for a crashed meteor that contains a cure-all substance called “Atmosphereium.” As the two scour the hillside looking for the meteor, we discover rival scientist and all around baddy Roger Fleming (Brian Howe) is looking for the same thing. Atmosphereium is so all-powerful, it can even be used to raise the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra himself back from the dead, as Fleming intends to do. Also looking for the meteor are aliens Kro-Bar (Andrew Parks) and Lattis (Susan McConnell) who also have misplaced their man-eating mutant which roams the hillside.
This film is funny……sort of. Here’s a sample of what you can expect…throughout the entire film. In one scene Betty Fleming hikes the hillside in high heels and a skirt, she exhaustedly tells hubby Paul that she needs to rest because “my legs are already starting to feel like two great big heavy things.” The film is rife with silly, harmless lines just like that. Also, The Lost Skeleton is also hilarious right down to the end.
But I just felt the whole thing got old fast. The running jokes run too far and the attempts to “understand your people” by Kro-Bar and Lattis fall flat. I totally get what Blamire was trying to do, but if you’re making a film with a silly, whimsical plot you need to spice it up.
I do think this film has an audience for big time fans of B-movies. Maybe I’m just a curmudgeon. After all, Blamire does completely succeed in not only parodying 50’s sci-fi, but he makes a truly innocent film devoid of almost all innuendo, foul language and other not-so-original pratfalls. However dragging a parody like this along for too long makes for a tedious watch.
Disagree with this review? Think you can write a better one? Go right ahead in Film Threat’s BACK TALK section! Click here>>>
