night of the comet

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A comet is visiting earth for the first time in 65 million years. The streets are full people waiting to watch the big event. Only when the comet comes, it turns everyone to dust, unless they’re in a steel room, then they’re fine, like our protagonists, Regina and Samantha. Now, mild exposure to the comet slows down their descent into dust, which makes them zombies. Regina and Samantha wake up to their deserted planet trying to piece together what’s happening. Along the way they meet Hector, another survivor of the comet who’s on his way to find his mother. While at the radio station, they raise the attention of a group of scientists holed up in a military-type instillation with ambiguously nefarious plans.

The zombies looked pretty cool in this movie. The make-up was well done. They basically just had facial prosthetics to give them more sunken and recessed eyes and white or at least light contacts that really sold the look. The effect worked nicely. They’re not what you’d call your standard zombies as they talk, reason and operate tools like anybody else, but they’re definitely vicious and scary looking.

Despite my unsavory recount of the events in the movie, this is a really fun flick with more than a few comedic scenes. It’s almost like John Hughes doing sci-fi/horror. They don’t bog you down with the details of why a comet would turn people to dust or why steel would stop the effects or what the conditions would need to be for people to turn into zombie jerks. With the pacing and the content it just doesn’t matter. Even when the last scene is a dude driving around the corner out of the blue to fulfill the 5th wheel sister’s romantic needs and drive off into the sunset for a big rosy happy ending, it does matter because the movie makes no pretense to be anything but a good time.

This was my first time watching it in 20 years and it has stood the test of time. It’s a little slice of the 80s that I look back at fondly. If you’ve got the time, pick it up. I found it in the Sci-Fi section of the video store.

Night of the Comet is a 1984 science fiction comedy horror zombie film directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran, and Kelli Maroney.

Plot

The Earth passes through the tail of a comet, which dooms all human and animal life except for those who happened to be completely enclosed inside metal containers (for example, the three main protagonists spend the night in a metal shed, a steel-lined projection room, and an 18-wheeler's trailer). Unprotected people and animals quickly dehydrate and turn into piles of red calcium dust. Those only partially exposed first gradually degenerate into cannibalistic zombies for hours or days before succumbing.

Two sisters, eighteen-year-old Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart) and sixteen-year-old Samantha (Kelli Maroney) Belmont ("Reggie" and "Sam"), are among the few survivors. The sisters are military brats; they were taught self-defense techniques and how to use firearms by their father, an Army officer. After realizing what has happened, they hear a disk jockey on the radio and head to the station, only to find that it is only a recording. However, they do meet another survivor there, trucker Hector Gomez (Robert Beltran).

When Sam talks on the air, she attracts the attention of researchers in an underground government think tank. They had suspected and prepared for the comet's effects, but "left the vents open" during its passing. In order to save themselves, they hunt down healthy survivors to harvest their blood to hold off the mystery disease while they try to create an antidote.

Hector then leaves to see if any of his family survived. The girls, in true Valley girl fashion, take advantage of the unexpected turn of events to go shopping, to the tune of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". After a firefight, they are taken prisoner by some slowly-dying department store stock boys, who demand payment for their 'purchases'. They are rescued just in time by a rescue party from the think tank.

Reggie is taken back to their facility; Audrey White (Mary Woronov), a dying, disillusioned scientist, lies to her co-workers, telling them that Sam had been exposed. She stays behind with Sam, pretending to kill the young woman with a lethal injection. When Hector returns, Audrey gives him enough information for him and Sam (who was only put to sleep) to concoct a plan to rescue Reggie; then she commits suicide. Hector and Sam free Reggie and two other survivors (a boy and a girl) also being held captive. Some of the researchers are killed in the escape, while the rest succumb to the disease.

Eventually rain washes away the red dust, leaving the world in pristine condition. The group turns into a conventional family unit, except for Sam, who feels left out. When she ignores Reggie's warning and crosses a deserted street against the light, she is almost run over by a car driven by Danny Mason Kenner, a boy her own age. After apologizing, he invites her to go for a ride.

References in Popular Culture * In an episode of the television show Benson entitled "Last Man on Earth," Kraus has a crazy dream where she and Benson are the last survivors on earth. The episode is a parody of Night of the Comet right down to people being reduced to red dust.

Home video

Night of the Comet was released on VHS cassette on August 30, 1985 and distributed by CBS/FOX Video. A second US VHS printing, distributed by Goodtimes Video, was released on August 30, 1990. The film was officially released on Region 1 DVD on March 6th, 2007.[1]

Cast

* Catherine Mary Stewart as Regina Belmont
* Kelli Maroney as Samantha Belmont
* Robert Beltran as Hector Gomez
* Sharon Farrell as Doris, Reggie and Sam's stepmother
* Mary Woronov as Audrey White
* Geoffrey Lewis as Dr. Carter, the leader of the think tank
* Peter Fox as Dr. Wilson, one of the researchers
* John Achorn as Oscar
* Michael Bowen as Larry Dupree
* Devon Ericson as Minder
* Lissa Layng as Davenport
* Janice Kawaye as Sarah, the young rescued girl