Night of the Comet (1984)

hyped garbage

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Night of the CometIn the 80's, the resulting fallout of a passing comet caused every human in contact of it to turn into into a flesh eating zombie before bursting to oblivion. Meanwhile, few survivors were lucky to survive but are facing a new dilemma. A group of scientist is hunting these survivors to capture and turn into their very own source of energy.Night of the Comet is your average run-in-the-mill popcorn flick but churned with the right amount of sense and consistency that you could give it a second chance. Everything about it screamed mediocrity. Acting. Script. Visuals. But its own easy-breeziness and simplicity lifts its material from becoming into another forgettable 80s trash. Cute actress too. Wonder why they did not make it big? [3.5/5]

A package deal delivered me this flick, never seen it before but came across it a many times just seen it on Blu Ray I must say that it wasn't really my thing. People say it's horror but I can't agree on that part. Sure, there are a few zombies walking around and they were really well done but some zombies doesn't make a horror. I should say that this is a a bit of a throw back to the fifties and sixties sci-fi flicks. And people knowing me do know that that era isn't my thing. And it do shows that it was being made in the eighties, the hair, Jesus and the spandex and other clothing and the score. But overall there isn't that much action going on, only some lame situations. But it do has it fan base, but not for me.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

A B-movie cheapie that found its audience on cable television, "Night Of The Comet" not only survives but thrives both as an amiable genre mash-up as well as testament to the fact that cinematic smarts can trump a low budget, especially when combined with a sense of humor.The end of the world has come in the form of a mysterious comet that turns people either into red dust or nasty walking corpses (zombie- ish, if not actual zombies), depending on their level of exposure. Army-brat sisters Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart) and Samantha (Kelli Maroney) are apparent lone survivors left to fend for themselves in a deserted and dangerous Los Angeles.One doesn't expect much from a film like this going in, one of "Night Of The Comet's" secret weapons. Another is the genre- twisting: Consider it "Planet Terror" meets "Thelma And Louise" with a John Hughes rewrite in there somewhere. Director Thom Eberhardt employs a formula exemplified by a graffito we see in an alley during an early brawl: "Entertainment Or Death." There's a lot of death in this movie, an entire city's population at the very least, yet it's entertainingly delivered, with tongue always in cheek. Yes, you have a good deal of suspense, and some scares, but mostly you have mordant moments like when Regina is trying to tell Samantha what happened to their wicked stepmother by shaking a dusty blouse she scoops off the lawn:"I'll show you Doris! Here's Doris!"If you can't laugh at something like that, you are watching the wrong movie.Both Stewart and Maroney are superb in giving you a rooting interest. Reg is the older, hyper-competitive teen, who can't bear the idea of someone else cutting into her list of top video game scores. Sam is a Valley Girl who still wears her pep-club togs and cuts a dance move after knocking down an armed adversary. While Robert Beltran is first-billed for contractual reasons, he actually plays a character more interesting for the rivalry he prompts in Reg and Sam as the last man on Earth than what he brings to the table himself. (He does have a funny scene trying to outrun a kid who has been turned feral by the comet.)Great support is given by Geoffrey Lewis as a menacing scientist and Mary Woronov as his conscience-ridden assistant. My favorite character is a leering ex-stock boy named Willy (Ivan E. Roth) who takes over a mall with his goons and sees the comet as his ticket to the capitalist dream: "Now we own the store! The American way!"The movie suffers from a weak resolution of the scientist situation, the only time the plot seems labored. One also wishes at times for more chances for Reg and Sam to use their automatic weapons, especially when Sam squints like Clint Eastwood discharging her MAC- 10. There are times L. A. seems a little too desolate. But overall, the film makes the right choices keeping things light.There's a wonderful visual style to the movie that marks "Night Of The Comet" as a product of the 1980s, but in a very fun way, with bright pastels and neons in evidence. I even love the light-pop score, which exudes a kind of cheerful counterpoint to the stalkings and standoffs.Some reviewers here call "Night Of The Comet" cheesy, and perhaps it is, as long as you are thinking Brie and not Velveeta. At least for me, it brightened many nights on cable back in the 1980s, and still works today.

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.