La notte della cometa

"Night of the Comet" is a truly fun and engaging little genre effort of the 80's, but surely some of its hardcore fans are slightly overestimating the value and significance of this film. I've encountered reviews stating that "Night of the Comet" is a quintessential gem of 80's horror and that it's easily one of the most intelligent tributes/parodies to older B-movies ever made. Okay, the script is quite clever and writer/director Thom Eberhardt definitely knows a lot about all the post-apocalyptic classics of the 50's and 60's, but I honestly doubt it ever was his intention to direct the ULTIMATE homage. "Night of the Comet" is more like a miniature-tribute! All the obligatory story lines and sub plots to create an end-of-the-world epic are present, but Eberhardt's only disposed of a limited budget and thus the elaboration is only small-scaled and rather cheesy. There are mutated zombies, crazed scientists and hostile groups of survivors on the rampage, but all just in small doses. The movie opens during a bright summer evening, when the entire world is preparing to see a mesmerizing and once-in-a-lifetime ecological phenomenon, namely the passing of a comet. Two high-school teenagers who missed out on the event (sisters, moreover, what are the odds?) wake up the next morning and slowly realize that the comet's radiation killed every human being in L.A, only leaving behind small piles of red dust. They entrench themselves in an abandoned radio station, meet up with another sole (and male) survivor, battle the occasional mutated zombie and – of course – go shopping without credit cards. Things get slightly more dangerous when a bunch of dying scientists, who predicted the extinction of the human race, try to abduct the survivors to steal their still uncontaminated blood. The tone of "Night of the Comet" is continuously light-headed, still director Ebarhardt manages to maintain a more or less sinister atmosphere which never allow you to forget that the whole of mankind just got wiped out. The girls, although mostly concerned about fashion trends and pop music, understand the seriousness of the situation and deal with it the best way they possibly can. There are still a handful of creepy sequences (the confrontation in the mall) and well-developed Sci-Fi ideas (the diabolical scientists), but the emphasis largely lies on the two girls and their typically 80's pop-culture life-styles. I've never heard this many campy pop-songs in one movie, not even in a musical, and the special & make-up effects are kept to a minimum. The acting performances of Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney are more adequate than you'd expect, as it certainly isn't easy for young actresses to portray teenage character that are stereotypical, ignorant, fashionable and yet likable at the same time. "Night of the Comet" certainly isn't brilliant, probably even a bit overrated by its fans, but still worth a peek in case you have a weakness for 80's cinema.

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!!"

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 ****

This is one of my guilty pleasures. A camp, 80s sci-fi caper that's dated but still enjoyable. The opening is wonderful and contrasts with the subdued but somewhat haunting ending. Back in 1984 this would have been even better because it would not have been regarded as camp. Today it seems we can all sneer our postmodern noses at such works but make assertions that its kitsch quality is now rather endearing. Catherine Mary Stewart steals the film with her Ripleyesque action moves and feminine charm, while Zoe Kelli Simon provides a number of dumb blonde comedic moments. The film lags somewhat after the brilliant opening but never loses its heart. The only downside is the fact it seems like a TV film/80s MTV video with its fuzzy camera-work. Watch it with popcorn at home, preferably late at night.

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.