THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVERA

Sci-Fi Geek Movie of the Week:
THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA

Full of insane goofy sci-fi goodness.

When I was a little kid, one of my greatest joys was staying up late at night. I would stay up later than my parents (on the weekends, of course) an watch the late night movies on TV. These consisted mostly of B-grade science fiction and monster movies. My 10 year old imagination readily sucked up features like The Forbidden Planet, Dracula, Attack of the Crab Monsters, and Plan 9 From Outer Space.

They weren’t necessarily great movies, but they were simple - and had the prerequisite elements for an exciting time. Aliens, monsters, vampires, commies, atom bombs, etc. And of course, there was at least one scientist who would figure out how to kill them all. The scientist was always the hero of the story (exactly the opposite is true in today’s films), and maybe because of that, I always wanted to be a scientist ………………….and do science.

THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (TLSOC) is not just a parody of these films. It doesn’t make fun of them. It’s more of a tribute. It pulls together all the basic elements into one movie. Filmed in skeletorama, it revels in its Ed Woodian goodness with humor and a little wink to the audience. The actors never break character and treat the material with the schloky reverence it deserves. It was one of the funniest movies I saw that year (2001). The makers of this film have abandoned the “less is more” concept in favor of the “more is more” philosophy. More villains, more monsters, more aliens, more animal-turned-humans, more cheesy broccoli props and hand-drawn special effects - and throw in an Amish terrarium for good measure. The best part though, is the dialog. Although much smarter than original Z-grade movies, it capture the essentials while stripping out all the unnecessary stuff. I dare anyone to watch this without getting a wicked case of the giggles.

The story? I don’t think I could possibly explain the plot of this story. The story is unimportant. The character elements are what’s important. There’s a radioactive meteor (all 50’s sci-fi involved a radioactive something-or-other), an element called Atmospherium that does - well, I don’t know what it does - a monster, an animal woman (?), a good scientist, an evil scientist, aliens, horrible mutilations, cows, and of course - a skeleton. The skeleton is, of course, the star and the funniest character, with his eye-bolt on top of his skull and wires to hold him up, he’s literally a scream.

Although TLSOC received virtually no press or promotion, it was proclaimed by the IFC as one of the top five independent features of the year. It has since enjoyed a wide word-of-mouth popularity, and several fan web site have popped up along the way. Check out this one, and of course, the one you’re now reading.

Top 10 favorite quotes from THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA

1. Even when I was a child, I was hated by skeletons!
2. I’ve seen a bear do things, well… even things that even a bear wouldn’t do.
3. Aliens? Us? Is this one of your Earth jokes?
4. Betty, you know what this meteor could mean to science. It could mean actual advances in the field of science.
5. I sleep now.
6. I’m a scientist, I don’t believe in anything.
7. We take our horrible mutilations seriously around these parts.
8. t’s okay bossy I’m here now. There, there bossy, there, there. No, no! You’re not Bossy! You’re not Bossy!
9. Sorry, sometimes my wife forgets that she is not an alien from outer space.
10. Well, I suppose if I had wanted a safe life, I wouldn’t have married a man who studies rocks.

You will enjoy THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA. The skeleton commands it!

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