"The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" is a grating attempt to pay homage and parody the tacky 1950s sci-fi, space opera genre. Unable to decide whether it’s either or both, it comes off as a worse B-movie than anything Ed Wood ever dreamed up, though writer/director/actor Larry Blamire claims this to be intentional. Talk about setting the bar low.

Even by B-movie standards, it’s a ridiculous plot that involves scientist Paul (Blamire) and his sexy, Doris Day-type wife Betty (Fay Masterson), on a hunt through California’s Bronson Canyon for something called atmospherium, which is to be found at the site of a crashed meteorite. So far, so good. In a very funny moment, the two stand in nature chirping and laughing romantically at mismatched stock file footage of cooing squirrels. That Blamire overplays his hand with the intentionally extended laughter is symptomatic of what’s to come in this bloated exercise in bad-ness.

Also on the trail of the precious substance is a corrupt scientist (Brian Howe), stalking the woods and intending to re-animate the legendary Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, purported to exist in a secluded cave. He conjures up the film’s most interesting and funny character, Animala (Jennifer Blaire, in a nice turn) a "woman" composed of several different animals and prone to behaving like one at the worst times. Enter two space aliens (Andrew Parks, Susan McConnell) in the same pursuit, their Teflon ship having crash-landed nearby. Of course, there’s a requisite Mutant Beast on the loose in the forest and a bumbling sheriff on hand to round out the intentional clichés. That’s just about it. Everyone ends up in an isolated cottage and things shake out from there.

‘Lost Skeleton,’ written directed by lead actor Larry Blamire, has its heart in the right place and does generate some level of fun—for about 15 minutes. But the jokes get old really quickly, and the film eschews affection for its target genre in favor of broad and embarrassing satire. The entire film is played with wink-wink, superior condescension, as if to suggest how bad the original films were, and how hip the cast is to get the joke. The effect is numbing, boring and unfunny, and it’s stretched out to an unbearably bloated 90 minutes.

Some festival junkies and a few critics of note have triumphed ‘Lost Skeleton’ as a dead-on parody with great lines and big laughs. While it may have been an amusing, tolerable short subject, as a feature its tongue should have been removed from its cheek long enough for Blamire to question why we needed a parody of a genre that’s already unintentionally hilarious.

I’ll take "Plan 9 from Outer Space" any day over this wan, overacted (intentionally, got it) crap fest.