Night of the Comet Review

For some reason my wife was trying to remember a zombie movie she had seen and used her Google-fu to find it. I believe the exact search was: '80s movie red dust zombie radio station. Which, of course, returned: Night of the Comet. I have to admit that this is one that I missed growing up and told my wife so when she mentioned it. (She was dumbfounded that she had seen a science fiction movie that I hadn't.) It then went to the top of our Netflix queue.

Night of the Comet, written/directed by Thom E. Eberhardt, in all it's 1980s glory is the story of what happens when the earth intersects the tail of a comet. The result is everyone who was exposed to the event is dead or turned into some sort of degenerating zombie. Enter Regina played by Catherine Mary Stewart (who herself has been in many classics like The Last Starfighter and Weekend at Bernie's) who happens to survive the night and finds that she and her sister may be the last two women alive.

Reg and her sister, Samantha (Sam - played by Kelli Maroney, go to a local radio station where they expect to find a live DJ. Instead they find Hector, played by Robert Beltran, who we couldn't help calling Chakotay for the rest of the film. Together they try to figure out what has happened and how to deal with it.

This film is fun and the director worked around a small budget so the special effects are pretty minimal. However, it has so many "rad" 1980s things going on that if you were growing up then and you haven't seen it you should. The argyle socks Reg is wearing while trying to top the leaderboard at Tempest are great - I had a pair of those. The Michael Jackson style shirts she was rockin' and the big hair. Of course there had to be a scene where the girls go "shopping" at the local department store.

It's probably best to watch this one in a group so that you can MST3K-it (see RiffTrax) - comments while watching might be the best part. Also, watch for the scene where Hector takes off his gloves and then magically has them back on! Points if you spot it.

Night of the Comet should been seen if only for the '80s style, music and nostalgia of it all. I polled the family and they agreed that Night of the Comet gets 3.5 Mick Happies. Watch out for comet tails out there.