Review of Night of the Comet (1984) by Tim B — 11 Dec 2010

Was this supposed to be this funny? While carrying a serious streak (to some sense), Night of the Comet is mainly all about fun times and being that I'm a sucker for that (along with an always affable 80s vibe), I had a blast with it.

The flick starts off with a bang in the comet coming down to earth. It then goes on to display us two sister characters. Personally, I identified with the two of them as the dialogue and script gave me an insight of how (I believe) two REAL teenage girls would act once they've realized they're some of the only people left in the world.

That being said, this one stayed true to its campy entertainment streak on top of that. Thom Eberhardt made this one almost seem like a drug movie. He sure loved his plays with colors... especially orange.

I'm also surprised at just how much he made this movie seem more mainstream than it actually was (especially at the time!) He went for a big showing here and in my eyes, he succeeded. Catherin Mary Stewart kept to a serious vibe, even when it wasn't necessary.

When the movie was serious, it worked. But when it was supposed to be funny, she stayed serious, thus cracking me up big time a la Airplane (was it intentional? Who cares!). Kelli Maroney played a dum-dum blonde (but likable one) most of the way and when it came time to get serious, she came through too.

Robert Beltran brought some testosterone to the mix. Performance-wise, he was okay. On the downer, the zombies on display here weren't that frequent. I would've appreciated a bit more carnage or zombie attacks on people.

I was somewhat digging on the last third of the movie but when I look back on it and compare it to the FUN first half, it didn't affect me as much. Lastly, a couple of plot holes arose here and there in terms of how exactly one becomes a zombie and/or space dust.

Didn't always make sense to me. But that said, I'm not the brightest incandescent bulb either (don't ask what that was about). This is still well worth a shot for those into the 80s or zombie mayhem.

I can see now where A LOT of today's pseudo-zombie flicks owe their origins to (28 Days Later, anyone?). This one sports awesome lines, amazing imagery, a sequence that any chick can identify with (shopping with Cyndi Lauper soundtrack.

..), and most importantly, a sense of FUN TIMES tagged to its back. Gotta love the 80s...