Review of Night of the Comet (1984) by Arny B — 17 May 2011

Night of the Comet is the campy B movie version of post apocalpyptic "last man on Earth" movies. Starring Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney, the film presents us with a script without pretentions and lots of humor. It is clear that Thom Eberhardt made this film for the sole purpose of being fun.

After a comet passes near earth, it generates a lethal effect that apparently wipes most of humanity out. The only people left belong to either one of two groups: zombies or survivors, who were luckily protected from the effect by steel. Regina (Swewart) and her sister, Samantha (Maroney), belong to the second group. You could say the film is divided into two main segments. The first one has a survivors vs. zombies approach, and the second one is more of a survivors vs. evil scientists story.

The first half of the film is great. You can sense the campiness and B movie feel since the beginning, which is a good thing, because the style works well with the humor that Eberhardt is going for. The two heroines are very likeable, never falling into the damsel in distress role, but still having a "girls just wanna have fun" thing going on. The scientists storyline is not as fun as the first half, but still works well.

The music and special effects are not going to leave you in awe, but they are used well, and the zombie make up is great whenever we get the chance to see it. But the main attractions here are definitely Stewart and Maroney.

Night of the Comet is not the best postapocalyptic movie out there, but its campy approach and mix of horror and comedy make it a very enjoyable little movie.