Lost Skeleton of Cadavra [2001]
A complete delight for fans of psychotronic cinema and the Saturday-afternoon creature feature. Writer-director Larry Blamire has distilled every cliché of the drive-in movie era of low-budget horror and put it into The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, 90 minutes of pitch-perfect spoofing. The dialogue is marvelously insipid, and the music (taken from a stock music library) cuts in and out of the action with breathtaking suddenness. It was even shot in Bronson Canyon, location of many a cheap B-picture (one knock: the black-and-white image, shot on video, wears the eye out after a while). Aliens from Mars crash-land, setting loose a mutant, while a mad scientist re-awakens a talking skeleton that could hold the key to world domination. And don't forget Animala, a half-woman, half-animal beatnik! Rowwwr! Blamire allows it all to run on too long, yet hardcore fans of this movie world will be hard-pressed to complain. --Robert Horton