Night of the Comet

It was the last thing on Earth they ever expected

NIGHT OF THE COMET (15)

D: Thom Everhardt

Atlantic/Coleman-Rosenblatt (Andrew Lane & Wayne Crawford)

US 1984

98 mins

Science Fiction/Horror/Comedy

W: Thom Eberhardt

DP: Arthur Albert

Ed: Fred Stafford

Mus: David Richard Campbell

Catherine Mary Stewart (Regina Belmont), Kelli Maroney (Sam Belmont), Robert Beltran (Hector Gomez), Sharon Farrell (Doris), Mary Woronov (Audrey White)

A cheesy 80's horror/sci-fi B-movie which is actually much better than it sounds. End of the world movies meet Dawn Of The Dead as a comet which hasn't passed by Earth in 65 million years turns the majority of the population into red dust and others into flesh eating zombies. Two people unaffected by the comet's apocalyptic powers are two Valley Girl sisters from the LA suburbs who find a male survivor hiding out at a local radio station, put out a message to find others & receive a message from scientists in a bunker who may have a darker motive for finding Earth's survivors.

It's all quite goofy & definitely owes a debt to Romero's zombie movies, but it's also a fun homage to the B-movies of the 1950's with clever references throughout.

The acting is all rather average, the script is cheesy and the special effects and makeup are quite atrocious, but this was still a hugely entertaining low budget sci-fi. A perfect example of a guilty pleasure movie.

6/10