Night of the Comet (1984)

Night of the Comet (1984) ** (out of 4) Everyone on Earth is awaiting a comet to come close but what no one knows is that it's going to have catastrophic consequences. The morning after the comet Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart) and Samantha (Kelli Maaroney) find that they're the only ones alive and they must try and survive the zombies that have overtaken the land.NIGHT OF THE COMET is a movie that a lot of people love. It wasn't the biggest box office hit but it gained a nice cult following over the years but I must admit that it just didn't work for me. I can honestly look at the movie and understand why some might love it but personally speaking there really wasn't anything here that kept me glued to the movie. While nothing in it is horrible there's also nothing good either.The film is a homage to those horror and science fiction films that would play in drive-ins back in the 1950s. There are a couple nice winks to those types of movies scattered throughout the running time but these things certainly can't save the picture. Both Stewart and Maroney are good in their parts but I can't say I loved either character. There certainly wasn't enough zombie action.Again, if you love this picture then I can understand why. At the same time, I really don't think there's anything great here.

A comet turns most of the life on Earth into red dust, leaving two young women to fight the wicked types who have survived.This off beat 80's scifi has a premise that harks back to The Last Man on Earth (1964) and it's tone is reminiscent of Lifeforce (1985) mixed with Dawn of the Dead (1978) and the Blob (1988 remake) to name a few. Director/writer Thom Eberhardt creates a visually eye-catching B- film with an eerie atmosphere on a neon-primary coloured backdrop. It has tongue-in-cheek humour and zombie-like effects spread throughout.The two female leads, cheerleader kitted Samantha (Kelli Maroney) and Regina "Reggie" Belmont (Catherine Mary Stewart) assisted by survivor Hector (Robert Beltran) take on nomads, dodgy scientists and alien infected zombies.The notable Stewart as Reggie keeps the energy high and Eberhardt throws in a consumerism subtext for good measure. Night of the Comet while not as pacy as it could be has enough going on including 1980's fashion to keep it entertaining.

When most of humanity is turned into a pile of dust and laundry from a comet, the blissfully unaware valley girl Regina spent the night hooking up in a cinema projection booth and playing arcade games. It doesn't take long before she's attacked by a zombie and joins her sister, who spent the night in a metal shed (whatever works, I guess) at a radio station where they assume there will be help. They meet up with another survivor and hit the empty streets of southern California. They make a few stops to try on clothes and run around the mall. Really, what else is there to do during the apocalypse? It's the main character's nonchalant attitude toward humanity's end that gives this film its charm. Red gradient filters on the camera lens to make the sky red, add to the hokey feel. A last act with evil scientists spoil much of the fun and never fully works, but what preceded it is one of the more entertaining horror comedy entries of the 80s.

18 year-old Reggie (Catherine Mary Stewart), is a Valley girl working in the local movie theatre when the rest of the world are out partying, waiting for the arrival of a passing comet. Reggie has a party of her own with goofy projectionist Larry (Breaking Bad's Michael Bowen) and ends up missing the event entirely. After Larry is attacked by a zombie- like creature and dragged away, Reggie emerges into the world the next morning to find everyone vanished. All that remains are piles of clothes and red dust. She travels home to pick up her adorable sister Samantha (Kelli Maroney), and heads to a local radio station in search for fellow survivors, only to find lovable idiot Hector (Robert Beltran).What is clearly aiming for pastiche of 1950's apocalyptic sci-fi movies, is actually an uneasy mix of many things. With the early introduction of the 'zombies', who can talk and use weapons, we are in horror territory. But this seems quickly forgotten once Hector goes to search for his mother and the girls head out for some very 80's retail therapy, even dancing around to Cyndi Lauper. Then it feels like we are in a John Hughes movie, with light humour and a cheesy soundtrack replacing the end-of-the-world atmosphere. It then switches again when the survivors are tracked down by a group of researchers who may or may not be up to any good. We are then in kiddie-friendly sci-fi mode, with men in white suits and big buttons that make science-y sounds.Night of the Comet really isn't that bad, it just suffers from a disarming lack of follow-through that withhold's the film's potential, and shifts between genres too gleefully. The result is a film that's isn't funny enough to be labelled an out-and-out comedy, too bloodless to be called a horror, and takes too long to get to the shady scientist types that it would be misleading to name it science fiction. The performances are all decent, especially Star Trek: Voyager's Beltran and Chopping Mall's (1986) Maroney, who both would have benefited the film by having more screen-time. Geoffrey Lewis also shows up near the end as the big-bad head of the shady researchers, but it's too little, too late, and Night of the Comet is tame and messy when it should be spunky and fun.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com