Night of the Comet (1984)

I was 7 years old in 1984, yet I can very clearly remember a lot of things from that year. It was huge year for movies, music, and pop culture in general (Madonna, The Karate Kid, Springsteen, Gremlins, Michael Jackson, Ghostbusters, Transformers, etc.). I grew up (ages 5-11) in upstate New York, just outside of Rochester, pretty far from Los Angeles where NIGHT OF THE COMET takes place. L.A. seemed to be the epicenter of the country at that time. The “Valley Girl” mentality seemed to infect the whole country with the help from the film, VALLEY GIRL, and the popular Frank Zappa tune entitled (what else?) "Valley Girl" where Moon Zappa introduced us to a lot of Valley Girl catch phrases that are like, O my god, still used today, like totally—I'm sooo sure!

Directed by Thom Eberhardt (he went on to much better things like…wait--CAPTAIN RON? Yikes!), and stars Catherine Mary Stewart (THE LAST STARFIGHTER) as Regina and Kelli Maroney (CHOPPING MALL) as Samantha, two teen sisters in L.A. that just happen to survive after a comet crashes to Earth, and turns almost everybody into orange dust (or Tang mix, I wasn't sure) and the others into flesh craving zombies. So how did the sisters manage to survive? Anybody who was protected by a metal shelter of sorts, lived. Regina was in a metal projector booth at the theater she worked at (banging the projectionist, played by Michael Bowen who was also in, yes, VALLEY GIRL), and Samantha, after having been locked out of the house slept in the storage shed in the backyard (plot convenience? You bet).

Regina's fuck buddy (Bowen) gets off’ed by a zombie, and she gets to put her women's defense class training to work (very funny scene), and kick some zombie ass. She comes home to find her sister alive as well. The girls fumble around for a while, thinking of what to do (not easy as it sounds for two valley girls), and they realize that music is still playing on the radio, so they head for the radio station only to find out that the music is on auto pilot from the previous night. At the station they happen to meet another survivor, Hector (Robert Beltran, he was Raoul in EATING RAOUL), he survived by sleeping in his car. Luckily, the girls are two military brats, and have access to assault weapons (okay, that's funny too), and know how to use them--If this all sounding ridiculous, that's because it is, but it's all intentional and done for laughs. NIGHT OF THE COMET is more a spoof of all the atomic paranoia sci-fi films of the 50's and 60's, with touches of Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD, than a straight-up horror movie.

The whole cast does a pretty good job, considering comedy can be hard to pull off. Catherine Mary Stewart gives a pretty solid performance as Regina—the smarter sister. She would go on to be a bit of an 80’s genre icon herself, with roles in films like DUDES, WORLD GONE WILD, and another classic 80’s comedy (about the 50’s), MISCHIEF. Kelli Maroney is great as Regina’s ditzier sister, Samantha. She would later play the polar opposite of that character in one my favorite 80’s cheesefests, CHOPPING MALL. I always thought Robert Beltran was an underrated actor—he was even better in EATING RAOUL. Speaking of EATING RAOUL, another star of that film makes an appearance here as well; genre legend, Mary Woronov makes a cameo towards the end of the film, as does Geoffry Lewis. Lewis has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid when I first saw him in Clint Eastwood’s EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (and it’s sequel, ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN). Michael Bowen has a small role as well as—what else, a douche bag. I put Bowen in the same category as actors like Billy Zabka and James Spader, but to a lesser degree. He shined at playing jockular douche bags, but Zabka and Spader are legendary for their douche bag/bully roles.

I remember seeing NIGHT OF THE COMET as a kid and not liking it. I thought it was dumb, and every time it was on cable, the channel would immediately get changed. Since then I'd heard a lot of good things about it, but some feelings just stick with you, and I'd avoided the film up until now, and the new verdict? I liked it, it wasn't anything great, but I enjoyed it. There are at least 5 laugh-out-loud-funny parts, and a dozen or so chuckles. Because it’s basically a sci-fi spoof of sorts, I can tell you right now why I didn't like it as a kid; I'm sure I didn't 'get' it. Not being familiar, back then, of the films it was spoofing/paying homage to (I wouldn't discover those gems until my teens), and also being too young to understand the humor played a big part in me not liking the film. The humor is actually very smart, subtle, and curiously, some what dry. Just seeing two valley girls deal with an apocalypse-type situation is pretty funny in itself. The end of the world is not really a humorous subject, but ends up being turned into one. Like Romero's, DAWN OF THE DEAD, it also deals with societal issues like consumerism (the girls even loot a shopping mall), but is way more tongue-in-cheek.

The film really captures the 80's mentality (for better or for worse), and is a great nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up in that decade or is just a fan of 80's pop culture. It's not like, radical or some junk but it didn't make me wanna' like gag myself with a spoon either. It's like…totally.

NIGHT OF THE COMET trailer