Andrew Parks, Brian Howe, Dan Conroy

When a rocket ship from the planet Marva crashlands on Earth, Krobar and Lattis, the husband and wife co-pilot team, are in for some nasty surprises. "This world is strange to us--even different!" The...( read more  read more... )re, at lovely Lake Arrowhead, the alien "Marvins" encounter good scientist Dr. Paul Armstrong and his wife Betty, who are in search of a mysterious meteor and the elusive element, Atmosphereum. Into this mix slithers evil scientist Fleming and a wise-cracking mutant skeleton.

Flixster Users

87% liked it

6,395 ratings

Critics

53% liked it

66 critics

PG, 1 hr. 30 min.

Directed by: Larry Blamire

Release Date: February 6, 2004

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: June 22, 2004

Get It:

Stats: 521 reviews

Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Your Rating



clear rating

Flixster Reviews (521)


  • September 1, 2008
    Mostly funny sendup of 50's Sci-Fi films is not as quirky or as witty as the similarly influenced 'Invasion!' but it still makes for a nice companion piece.
  • August 3, 2007
    A well-engineered B-Movie. It's quite funny in parts. Intentionally cheap and cheesy. The actors did well to ham up their roles. I got a bit bored with how over-the-top things kept being.
  • June 21, 2007
    I love these soft earth funnels.
  • January 30, 2007
    Ranger Brad, I'm a scientist, I don't believe in anything. Bend in the middle. Tip...
  • December 29, 2006
    Like Spinal Tap and The Office left people scratching their heads, wondering "Is this real, or what?", this movie tried to emulate some of the cheesier horror flicks of the 50s and 60s (mostly of the MST3K caliber), and while it was shot in b/w, had bad effects and ponderous dial...( read more)og, it was shot on video (!), thereby removing any doubt. The best way to do comedy (the poet reckoned), especially satire, is straight, and this movie is constantly winking at the audience, rather than going on with a straight face. Some funny stuff, but ultimately didn't work for me.
  • June 18, 2009
    "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" is a film I really hoped I would like, as I already very much enjoyed a similar parody of sci-fi movies of the fifties, "Top of the Food Chain" (not to mention "Mars Attacks", which is in a different league budget-wise), and I often came across its ...( read more)title in the favorites of people with profiles close to mine. But as I watched the first quarter of an hour or so, I feared the magic would not work on me. I found the acting rather bad (it's supposed to be bad, of course, but I felt the actors - or at least Brian Howe and screenwriter and director Blamire - were badly acting the bad acting, if that makes any sense), and the humour a bit too systematic. After all, it's rather easy to mimic a black and white B-movie: all you need is sexually stereotyped characters, a lousy script full of coincidences, improbabilities and cliches, silly on-the-nose dialogues or monologues and cruddy SFX and props. I was just hoping there would be more.

    And then something clicked. Maybe it was the aliens, who I thought were brilliant, and the interaction between them and the protagonists. Maybe it was my recognition that my antipathy for Blamire had something to do with the fact that he unconsciously reminded me of Richard Dawkins (the man highest on my list of people I would like to punch in the face if my religion did not teach me to turn the other cheek.) But anyway something happened, and I started having a smile on my face for the rest of the film, even occasionally laughing out loud.

    I did find one blooper though. If the aliens, the Marvans as they call themselves from the name of their planet, Marva, gave up messes eons of our Earth years ago, how come they were in possession of a bottle of transmutatron cleaner? Surely there must be a scientific explanation for this, probably the very nature of the transmutatron itself. Maybe such a device cannot be made impervious to messes, and therefore requires cleaner liquid to be cleaned when it is messy, as when it falls into the messes on other planets. I wish the scientist had explained the matter to us, or maybe the alien himself, who was the repository of the treasures of Marvan science (the science of planet Marva.)

    Fay Masterson was really pretty as the scientist's wife (I often forgot that she was not Naomi Watts; sometimes this should have been made clearer to the audience) and Susan McConnell was great as Lattis, the alien wife. However, I was disappointed to learn with the end titles that the mutant was just a man in a suit. They had me fooled the whole time. At least the mystery of the skeleton remains. Was he a real skeleton? Maybe such things are disclosed in "The Lost Skeleton Returns Again."
  • January 17, 2009
    Ever since I first saw the trailer for this (around 2001?) I had wanted to see it. Since then I often had trouble remembering the name of it, but I finally found it after over 7 years.

    It was very funny, although a bit boring at parts, but I think it was supposed to be. I watc...( read more)h a lot of old sci-fi and horror movies as well so I liked the way it made fun of them. Usually I hate parody/spoof things, but this one was really good.

    Pretty much 95% of the dialogue can be quoted in daily life and would make for amusing conversation. A quotable movie is always a good movie. I almost wet my pants at "I sleep now". Some of it was too obvious and a bit lame, but mostly it was fun.

    But anyway, it's worth seeing, especially if you've actually watched older sci-fi and horror (like 50's etc).
  • December 15, 2008
    Atmospherium! This could mean actual advances in the feild of science!
  • December 9, 2008
    Ridiculous and silly, but very funny.
  • December 3, 2008
    One of the best send-ups to cheesy 50's Sci-Fi/Horror.

Critic Reviews


May 4, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

A bland inside joke for genre aficionados. full review

March 12, 2004
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

A little too true to it sources and ends up reminding you just how boring inept acting, editing and story-telling can be. full review

March 12, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Has been made by people who are trying to be bad, which by definition reveals that they are playing beneath their ability. full review

March 11, 2004
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Blamire has managed to make an inventive and entertaining movie out of stock heroes and villains, vacuous plotting and community-theater-quality special effects. full review

February 18, 2004
Edward Havens, FilmJerk.com

One of the more enjoyable times a film fan can have at the cinema. full review

View more The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


This board looks lonely. Be the first to talk about "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" !

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Official Trailer

More Like This


Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • Scary Movie 3
    Scary Movie 3 (100%)
  • The Lost Skeleton Returns Again
    The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (100%)
  • Harsh Times
    Harsh Times (50%)
  • The Tingler
    The Tingler (25%)

Facts


No facts approved yet. Be the first

The Lost Skeleton... : Watch Free on TV


The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra Trivia


  • What was the mysterious element sought after by aliens, scientists, and evil skeletons in "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra"?  Answer »

Recent News


No recent headlines. Got one?

Most Popular Skin


No skins yet. Interested in creating one?