Anyone familiar with SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival knows that we like a good laugh. Over the last few years, comedy has become an integral part of the festival, especially with the MST3K All-nighters, which always sell out. For those of you who do not know what MST3K is, it is an abbreviation of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. An astronaut and two robots are stuck on a space station and the only thing they get on their monitors is really bad sci-fi and genre movies from the 50s and 60s, over which they riff – put new dialogue and commentary. Let's face it; movies from that era were easy pickings with their corny dialogue, flaky costumes and wobbly sets. But they were simpler, more innocent times when the future was still a long way off.
British-born filmmaker Larry Blamire is a fan of these classic old sci-fi movies when imagination often outstripped talent and budget restraints, and he has made homage to these matinee movies with THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA. The director has gathered together some well-known actors such as Fay Masterson, Brian Howe and Andrew Parks and got them to perform in that stilted, exaggerated way of the 50s, which isn't as easy at it sounds. Shot in glorious 2D black and white, with a cast of scientists, silver-suited aliens and speaking skeletons, the characters are as clichéd as the dialogue. [A small point of criticism: if the director is going to all the trouble of shooting in monochrome, he should have also shot in Academy format (4:3) and not 16:9 widescreen. Just saying.]
The trouble is, it is clearly done with great affection for the genre, but it mocks rather than imitates or parodies the originals and is not nearly as funny or clever as it thinks it is. We know the films of the 50s were bad, but they were made in innocence.
Do we really need cerebral remakes? Isn't Hollywood still turning out dreadful genre movies filled with clichéd characters and dialogue, just with better special effects? MST3K works because they use the originals and say the things we think, but with better comedy timing. Or maybe I completely missed the point of CADAVRA and it is one of those films that needs to be watched with a crowd and lots of alcohol or the mind-altering substance of your choice.
The DVD has the usual collection of bloopers, making-of and commentaries, but they weren't available on the review disc.
THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA is out now on DVD from 4Digital Media and is available from Play and all good retailers.
