Twilightfa
Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.
SanEat
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Motompa
Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.
Leofwine_draca
Although NIGHT OF THE COMET possesses a minor status as a cult zombie film, I'm sorry to say that it is totally unworthy of said respect. Truth be told, it's a dumb '80s teen comedy, with a couple of utterly irritating teenage girls as leads and not a great deal to recommend it whatsoever. The paucity of the film's budget is evident from the outset, as comet effects are achieved with flashlights and the sky turns a cheesy red colour for the rest of the movie. As for the plot, it's a direct rip-off of Day of the Triffids, as comets destroy everyone aside from a few people who weren't exposed to the radiation. And what of the zombies? Well, the director clearly loves the work of George Romero and feels it necessary to incorporate a few okay-ish zombie attacks into the film, but these takes up 5 minutes of the running time tops and half of those are padded dream sequences.Catherine Mary Stewart makes for an unlikely heroine, with a big mouth and even bigger attitude. She's matched by blonde bimbo Kelli Maroney, who character is hands down the worst thing in the movie; you'll be screaming for her death scene, but even that's a cheat. The lead is taken by Robert Beltran, later known for his starring role in STAR TREK: VOYAGER, but he doesn't really have anything to do in this film, just stand around and look dashing. Two cult movie fans appear in the flick: Mary Woronov and Geoffrey Lewis. Both are entertaining in their own right, but criminally underused.The film is slow moving and even the slim plot seems padded. It can't even use the lack of budget as an excuse, as Steve Barkett's THE AFTERMATH was done on about one tenth of this film's budget and was ten times better. The comedy is diabolical and halfway through things grind to a halt for an appalling shopping mall interlude clearly stolen from DAWN OF THE DEAD. Except this time, two obnoxious teenagers dress up to the 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' song. Words can't express how bad this is. Things do pick up for an eleventh day sub-plot about some ruthless scientists harvesting human blood to protect themselves from the radioactive ways, but it 's over quickly and without much to recommend it. Poor acting, plot, special effects, and barely any gore effects make this film one to avoid. The evil scientist plot is the only thing to stop it from being totally without merit.
gilligan1965
Horror movies like this are what attracted so many teen boys, like myself, to the Dusk-Till-Dawn Drive-Ins back in the 1980s. Most of these movies were out-right awful; many were so-so; but, others, including this one, were actually very good and memorable.I really loved the drive-in movies when I was a teen (too bad for the teens nowadays!?!?). Studios were producing B-Movies ten-at-a-time to flood the drive-ins, and, we teens loved it! These movies, no matter how good or bad, are what we went to see...all night and into the morning.The drive-in, like the mall, the video arcade, and, the recreational center, was a social institution, and, YOU HAD TO BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!This is a really good movie that I saw at the Riverdale Drive-In in West Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1984 with my friends in my 1974 Datsun B-210...hee-hee!Even the cheesy 1980s music in this movie is good! Compared to most of the garbage played in movies now...it's great! It almost all sounds like Sammy Hagar, Patty Smyth, and/or Journey, and, brings back a lot of good memories.And...last, but, certainly not least, these movies always had hot chicks (usually called 'Scream Queens' back in the day) who teenage boys lusted after. This movie has "Cindy the Cheerleader" (Kelli Maroney) from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982); and, the ever-and-still-beautiful Catherine Mary Stewart.I love how it's said in this movie, about one hour in, by the glasses-wearing dork-freak who's in control of all of this disaster (like in "Wayward Pines")..."It's ironic! Of all the great minds of the world, all the great intellects, who should survive!?!?" His meaning being - two idiot hot chicks!?!? And, it's a government cover-up like in "The Crazies" (2010)...and, how many other books and movies!?!? Only here, the hot chicks, survive (The Meek).I had a very happy life as a child and a teen, and, these movies are a big part of my happiness. As a teen, I loved these 'Dime-A-Dozen' B-Movies...and, I guess I still do...or, I'm having a mid-life crisis!?!? Nope! I doubt it! These movies should all be brought back to drive-ins (if there are any left) so that my own teenage Son (and, the Sons of guys my age) can see them all night and into the morning with his friends, just as his Daddy did when he was a teen! The drive-in movies were a great time in America during the 1980s; just as they were in the 1950s, 1960s, and, 1970s! :)I give this movie seven stars because it's a movie that I once liked...and, seeing it again after 31 years, brought me back to a time in my life when all I had to worry about in the world was having enough money for gasoline for my car so I could bring my girlfriend out on a date...likely to a drive-in movie!MEMORIES - are all we have when we're old!GOOD MEMORIES - are sometimes hard to come by!DRIVE-IN MOVIE MEMORIES - are the best for someone who was a teenage boy in the 1980s!
TheMarwood
When most of humanity is turned into a pile of dust and laundry from a comet, the blissfully unaware valley girl Regina spent the night hooking up in a cinema projection booth and playing arcade games. It doesn't take long before she's attacked by a zombie and joins her sister, who spent the night in a metal shed (whatever works, I guess) at a radio station where they assume there will be help. They meet up with another survivor and hit the empty streets of southern California. They make a few stops to try on clothes and run around the mall. Really, what else is there to do during the apocalypse? It's the main character's nonchalant attitude toward humanity's end that gives this film its charm. Red gradient filters on the camera lens to make the sky red, add to the hokey feel. A last act with evil scientists spoil much of the fun and never fully works, but what preceded it is one of the more entertaining horror comedy entries of the 80s.
tomgillespie2002
18 year-old Reggie (Catherine Mary Stewart), is a Valley girl working in the local movie theatre when the rest of the world are out partying, waiting for the arrival of a passing comet. Reggie has a party of her own with goofy projectionist Larry (Breaking Bad's Michael Bowen) and ends up missing the event entirely. After Larry is attacked by a zombie- like creature and dragged away, Reggie emerges into the world the next morning to find everyone vanished. All that remains are piles of clothes and red dust. She travels home to pick up her adorable sister Samantha (Kelli Maroney), and heads to a local radio station in search for fellow survivors, only to find lovable idiot Hector (Robert Beltran).What is clearly aiming for pastiche of 1950's apocalyptic sci-fi movies, is actually an uneasy mix of many things. With the early introduction of the 'zombies', who can talk and use weapons, we are in horror territory. But this seems quickly forgotten once Hector goes to search for his mother and the girls head out for some very 80's retail therapy, even dancing around to Cyndi Lauper. Then it feels like we are in a John Hughes movie, with light humour and a cheesy soundtrack replacing the end-of-the-world atmosphere. It then switches again when the survivors are tracked down by a group of researchers who may or may not be up to any good. We are then in kiddie-friendly sci-fi mode, with men in white suits and big buttons that make science-y sounds.Night of the Comet really isn't that bad, it just suffers from a disarming lack of follow-through that withhold's the film's potential, and shifts between genres too gleefully. The result is a film that's isn't funny enough to be labelled an out-and-out comedy, too bloodless to be called a horror, and takes too long to get to the shady scientist types that it would be misleading to name it science fiction. The performances are all decent, especially Star Trek: Voyager's Beltran and Chopping Mall's (1986) Maroney, who both would have benefited the film by having more screen-time. Geoffrey Lewis also shows up near the end as the big-bad head of the shady researchers, but it's too little, too late, and Night of the Comet is tame and messy when it should be spunky and fun.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com
