La notte della cometa

Hey, you can complain about it all you want folks, but this is classic 80s!!! Those of you who feel nostalgic when you hear synth music, see super fluffy layered hair with LOTS of Aqua net, and skintight SV's or Jordache, this is for you.

Robert Beltran is our Ponchlike hero, we who are Trekkers have come to know him as Chakotay from ST: Voyager, but some of you 80s buffs might remember him as "RAOUL" from a little picture from around the same year called "Eating Raoul" with the great Mary Waronov, who is also briefly in this movie as a mad scientist/zombie gone good with a conscience. Her part I wish had been larger, and that her interaction with Beltran had been more detailed... they are great on screen together, and she fits right in with this 80s camp.

Catherine Mary Stewart who used to be Kayla Brady on Days of our Lives shines as the tough chick, while cute Kelly Maroney of Ryan's Hope is her naive cheerleader sister. Sorry if some of you think it is awful, but if you grew up during the time this film was made, I believe you will really enjoy it. The music is really nostalgic... there's one slow song that is really reminiscent of the Frank Stallone days when he was on top with "Staying Alive"... Anyone remember "Moody Girl"? This song will remind you of that, and this movie will make you long for days before the world lost all it's creativity and started copying everything great from that time.

Enjoy, Children of the 80s, this one's for you.

PS... Had to edit this upon just watching it again... How funny and predictive is it that Kelly says "Beam me up Scotty"... As The future Chakotay is listening!" :)

First of all, 2 glaring corrections:

1. 'Liquid Sky' is NOT an Aussie movie...it's an American film.

2. 'Liquid Sky' was released two years before NOTC, and has no thematic resemblance to the NOTC. I think the poster below me is thinking of a different movie, about a man who wakes up in Sydney to find himself seemingly the last man alive. Can't remember the name of it though.

Don't believe anyone who tells you NOTC is a disgrace...it isn't, it wasn't meant to be the uberartistic art-fag opus that many people for some reason seem to think everything should be. It's simply a cheesy 80's movie that centers around 2 valley girl sisters who decide shopping and listening to Cindy Lauper tunes will cheer them up after a comet turns the majority of the population into red ferrous-oxide dust, and turns most everyone left who isn't immune into flesh-hungry zombies...and any movie with zombies ain't completely bad. Face it people, we need more zombie movies, and this one's a toot. Not perfect by any means, but I'm proud to have it in my collection.

All of you who said this movie was dumb, unrealistic, or not scary, that is the point of a B-movie, as others have pointed out. What made this movie great was that it knew it was cheesy. A valley-girl cheerleader and her movie-theater-employee sister running around with machine guns, raiding the mall and saving the world while hiding out as radio DJ's, is not supposed to be taken seriously. Of course it is ridiculous that people would be instantly incinerated, yet plant life, clothes, and the electric company would be untouched. A lot of Academy-Award winning movies are not realistic either. This is supposed to be entertaining, and make you think about what you would do if you were one of the few people left in the world. This film was a classic 80's comedy. And I for one found the zombies pretty creepy, except for the junior zombie that breaks into Hector's mom's house, that was just hilarious. Catherine Mary Stewart (Regina) is great as the older sister, I was always surprised that she didn't become a bigger star after this one. If you grew up in the 80's, and you never saw this movie, see it now! It is an 80's classic! To this day I can't jaywalk without hearing the line, "The future of civilization is on us, we do not CROSS against the LIGHT!!"

I originally saw this movie in the theater, and I LOVED it! I had often fantasized about the end of the world where only myself a few others had survived.

Well, I'm 16 years older now, and not quite as misanthropic, but I still got a kick out of watching this again the other night. Sure, the soundtrack was atrocious, and some of the acting was sub-par, but the sheer aplomb that "Samantha" has carries the film, I thought.

Plus, it was fun to see Robert Beltran (ST: Voyager's second in command), so much younger!

Quite a few laughs, and a pretty good plot twist or two to keep you guessing makes this an easy movie to enjoy.

My rating: 7

Cheesy, but enjoyable satire is like the poor man's version of 28 Days Later (2002) with a big chunk of '80's vibe for flavor!

Comet eliminates the worlds population, leaving surviving sisters to fend against a group of demented scientists.

While many peg Night of the Comet as a zombie picture, and granted two or three zombies do show up along the way, this film really has much more in common with the old B sci-fi movies of the 1950s. In fact, one could make a good case that the film is meant to be a comical parody of those old schlock films, after all it does have a nice comic book feel! From any view, this is an entertaining film even with its silly moments. It manages to stir up a few chills along with the laughs.

The films cast is only decent, but their performances do hold their own. The special FX, mostly the zombies, are pretty decent. The music score is composed mainly of electronic tunes that perfect that great '80's feel!

For those seeking a bit of fun humor with their horror, Night of the Comet isn't a bad choice.

*** out of ****