Night of the Comet

Since this is not part of our current flight of zombie films (we're doing Asian films right now) it's only going to get a short write up. When we get to the 80's we may do a full review on it.

I was a little nervous when I picked this up because it would be the first film in my zombie collection to come with a PG-13 rating. Could you still have a good horror movie with out sex, drugs, and cannibalism? But it was from the '80s, my favorite decade for horror films, and it was dirt cheap, so in the shopping cart it went.

Night of the Comet came out to tie into the Halley's Comet madness that was overcoming the nation. In the film all of LA is outside at night time comet viewing parties except for two sisters who are too self involved to care about a comet. Their narcissism pays off though when everyone watching the comet is either irradiated into dust or turned into zombies. Most of them get turned into dust though because there are maybe three or four full make up zombies in this film. Seriously, there are more zombies on the cover than in the movie. The violence was naturally turned way down, and there wasn't much gore to speak of. Also, they plot got a little convoluted towards the end. It wasn't hard to follow, but it also didn't make much sense.

So this film didn't have much in common with the titans of '80s horror like The Thing or An American Werewolf in London. However, the movies it did evoked were some of my other favorites from the decade, classics like Goonies, Monster Squad, and Adventures in Babysitting. It in no way is as good as these films, but it makes you incredibly nostalgic for those films. It was a lot of fun to watch a film like those beloved films from my childhood, especially one that I had never scene before. It also didn't hurt that I watched it Sunday morning, and not at night. Night of the Comet is written and directed by Thom Eberhardt who also wrote and directed Captain Ron (that's right, Captain motherfucking Ron!) and stars Catherine Mary Stewart (Weekend at Bernie's, The Last Starfighter) and Kelli Maroney (Fast Times at Ridgemont High). Totally 80s. I say rent it and remember a simpler time.

© D. L. Noah, 2007