The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

• Main
• YMMV
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
• Create New

"I sleep now."

Dr. Fleming: Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a skeleton to bring to life! Skeleton: (in a distant cave) THAT WOULD BE ME.

A 2001 Affectionate Parody of campy 1950s B Movies, complete with nonsensical plot, stilted acting and cheap Special Effects. Directed by, written by and starring Larry Blamire, who has completed a sequel, The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, which was released on DVD in August, 2010.

The plot revolves around Dr. Paul Armstrong (a man OF SCIENCE), Dr. Roger Fleming (a man OF EVIL), and Kro-Bar and Lattis (aliens FROM OUTER SPACE), all of whom wish to acquire the rare radioactive element "atmosphereum" for various reasons: to do science, to revive a mysterious lost skeleton and to power their spaceship, respectively. A mutant (WHO KILLS FOR KICKS!) and a petting zoo person factor in here somehow also.

Tropes used in The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra include:

• Agent Scully: Dr. Fleming is a scientist; he doesn't believe in anything.
• Affectionate Parody
• Aliens Speaking English
• Antagonist Title
• Bad Bad Acting: Everyone. Dan Conroy, the actor who played Ranger Brad, plays his character as though he were an actual park ranger who got talked into playing a role in the movie because he had his own costume.
• Bad Boss: The Skeleton.
• Beast and Beauty / Mars Needs Women: The Mutant is smitten by Betty. The Skeleton decides to marry Lattis.
• Between My Legs: A bizarre and very brief example, when Betty has to Show Some Leg.
• Big No: Twice. First, from Lattis when the Skeleton decides to marry her. Second, from the Skeleton himself upon defeat.
• Biological Mashup: Animala is a person-shaped mashup of four different animals. At the end, these are revealed to be a fox, two ferrets, and a squirrel.
• Brainwashed: The Skeleton, Animala and the aliens can all do this to people.
• Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: Used inconsistently. Cranberries on the planet Marva are "cranberroids", cherries are "linbooba", but grapes are just grapes.
• Catch Phrase: Seems like it's a day for Catch Phrases! Oh well.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Not in the film's final cut, but the actor in the Mutant costume swore up a storm during his fight with the skeleton.
• Compelling Voice: The Skeleton, used on Kro-Bar.
• Contemplate Our Navels: After their Heel Face Turn, Kro-Bar and Lattis invite the Armstrongs over for dinner, and discuss the differences between Earth and the planet Marva, even though a mutant (WHO KILLS FOR KICKS) and an evil skeleton are running around.
• Deadpan Snarker: The Skeleton.
• Deliberately Monochrome
• Dem Bones
• Department of Redundancy Department: As sayeth the Skeleton: "Bring me to life and together we shall rule the world together!"
• Easily Forgiven: The Mutant
• The End - or Is It?: Parodied.

THE END? OR IS IT? ISN'T IT MORE LIKE A KIND OF BEGINNING IN A WAY? LIKE A NEW BEGINNING? FOR EVERYONE? HM... I WONDER... OH WELL.

• Everything's Worse with Bears: "I've seen bears do things that even a bear wouldn't do."
• Evil Laugh: Dr Fleming, when he finds the Skeleton. Also an Overly Long Gag.
• The Fifties
• Fighting From the Inside: Kro-Bar against the Skeleton's Compelling Voice... though not very effectively.

I won't like it!

• For Science!: Paul's motivation in locating the atmosphereum.
• For the Evulz: Dr. Fleming never gives any reason at all for wanting to resurrect the Lost Skeleton, so this trope seems to be his only motivation.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck

Dr. Paul Armstrong: Now for the love of Mike, will someone please explain what the heck is going on here?

• Green Rocks: That rarest of all metals, atmosphereum, which can do such things as fuel spaceships and bring magical skeletons back to life.
• Housewife: Betty, to ridiculous degree as it's almost all she ever talks about.
• Hugh Mann
• Human Aliens: Kro-Bar and Lattis.
• Large Ham: Andrew Parks decided to play Kro-Bar as though he thought it was the role of a lifetime. There's also a lot of Eros in there.
• Little Bit Beastly: Animala.
• Ms. Fanservice: Animala. Rowr.
  • Author Appeal: That's the director's wife. That lucky bastard.
• People in Rubber Suits: The mutant.
• People Jars: Averted by the ethical principles of Science!

Skeleton: You must find the atmosphereum. Animala: Amish Terrarium. Must find Amish terrarium. Dr. Paul Armstrong: I don't understand. Why does she need an Amish terrarium? Betty Armstrong: Don't the Amish live in open air, like us? Dr. Paul Armstrong: Of course, Betty, it's absurd. Putting the Amish in glass cases would be inhumane.

• Retraux: Made to look like a movie from the 1950s.
• Say My Name: "Paul? Paul? Paul!? PAUL!?!"
• Screaming Woman
• Shaped Like Itself: Everyone talks like this:

Dr. Armstrong: Do you realize what this meteor could mean to science? If we find it, and it's real, it could mean a lot. It could mean actual advances in the field of science.

• Space Clothes. And Spock Speak.
• Stylistic Suck: Almost too good of a job, really... Somewhere in the padding, bad acting, and overly long shots, it's easy to lose interest.
• Sue Donym: Nearly half the cast takes on a pseudonym at one point. Dr. Roger Fleming becomes Rudolph Jaber (even though he doesn't need to), Animala becomes Pammy Jaber (even though she's just been named "Animala" simultaneously, and it would have been easier just to name her "Pammy"), Kro-Bar becomes Bammin Taylor, and Lattis becomes Turgaso Taylor.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:

Kro-Bar: Aliens? Us? Is this one of your Earth jokes? Fleming: See? See? Lattis: You should not have said "Earth jokes." Don't you see how that gave us away?

• • Kro-Bar: I'm sorry, my wife sometimes forgets that she is not a space alien.
• Tempting Fate: Ranger Brad, who gets killed moments after warning everyone about the horribly mutilated farmer that had been found earlier.

Ranger Brad: Say, I must be crazy walking around in these woods at night with a horrible mutilation practically around the corner. Oh well.

• Very False Advertising: The trailer.

Years in the making -- on the world's most spectacular locations! A cast of thousands! A cost of millions!

• • Well, the locations part wasn't totally off. Bronson Canyon is a pretty well-known place...to movie buffs. Hell, most of the film's budget went to getting the rights to film there.
• Weirdness Censor: Applies in the Armstrong's first interactions with the aliens and Animala.
  • To wit, Paul refers to their guests as "odd ducks," after witnessing actions that would have most people calling for the police within seconds.

The Lost Skeleton Returns Again

• Confusing Multiple Negatives
• Deliberately Monochrome: The first part of the movie, as if only a black and white print could be found.
• Dem Bones: The Skeleton is now only a skull, much to his annoyance. He can levitate however.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The title.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Armstrong is now disillusioned with Science after a colleague took credit for the discovery of a new metal and named it after himself (Armstrong had planned to name it after himself!)
• Economy Cast: The Cantaloupe Tribe, all three of them. When you can see them at all (they're very good at hiding).
• Everything's Better With Trilobites
• Evil Chancellor: Averted, although the character of Bentivegitantus was made to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to this trope.
• Evil Twin: Averted in Peter Fleming's case. He's good, and hoping to clear the name of his villainous brother Roger, but the Skeleton is controlling him too.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin

Bartender: Si, I know a gringo. We call him...the Man in the Corner. (indicates man sitting in the corner of the bar)

• Flying Saucer: Kro-Bar and Lattis upgrade from their previous rocketship.
• Green Rocks: This time it's Jerranium 90.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Kro-Bar's attempt at 'normal' human dress in the jungle.
  • Which, being that it's Kro-Bar, this is the most normal part of his disguise.
• Identical Brother: As well as Peter Fleming, they also encounter Ranger Brad's twin brother, Jungle Brad.

Paul: Wait, you're twins, and you're both named Brad? Jungle Brad: We have different last names.

• It's the Journey That Counts: Subverted, since it turns out that Animala had the Jerranium 90 all along.
• Jaws First Person Perspective: We get to see a monster sneak up and attack Jungle Brad, the same way the mutant snuck up on Ranger Brad. He even shrieks the exact same way. In a massive subversion, Jungle Brad is not only perfectly unharmed, but he was able to correctly identify the creature and warn people NOT to act like he did, or they'll get killed.
• Jungle Japes
• MacGuffin: The Dalp of Anacrab.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: The Skeleton charges towards the Cantaloupe Monster declaring this will be "THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY!" only to be instantly crushed. Likewise Chinfa's dance is built up as something flamboyant, but it consists of tiny hip twitches.
• Nice Hat: The Cantaloupe People. Guess what they wear on their heads.
• Overly Long Gag:
  • The "show me your card slowwwwwly" scene.
  • Lattis and Cro-bar mourning. Eventually the cast joins them.
  • Chinfa's failure to understand double negatives.
  • Bentivegitantus' speech.

Bentivegitantus: But my Queen, was it not foretold in the Time of the Coming of the Other Ones, when the… The thing with the… That other thing came to pass… When it was… Lo, heed the warnings, that the Outsiders, lest they… When they come to… And it is! Lo! Seize them! That they… I swear, when the moon has… Infidels! For was it not the great… Are you heedless of the power of the… Behold! It is the… A wrath upon you all, that the… Mighty is the… For it is… Know this! By the time the… For it is written that… Dare you violate… The forbidden… Parts!? I have spoken. Chinfa: Your words are well chosen, Bentivegitantus.

• People in Rubber Suits: Two this time. The gralmanopidon and the dreaded Magraclop.
• The Pollyanna: Betty
• Retraux: Meant to look like a studio B-Movie of The Sixties, as opposed to the independent cheapy-look of Cadavra.
• Redemption Equals Death: Peter Fleming, now free of the skull's influence, saves Lattis from a Man-Eating Plant but is fatally injured.
• Weirdness Censor: Still in place for the Armstrongs, who recognize Animala, but as "Pammy," and think Peter Fleming is "Rudolf Yaber," not the evil Dr. Roger Fleming who used that as his Sue Donym.
• You Look Familiar: All the actors from the first movie turn up again.

---

Oh well.