Night of the Comet

• Written and Directed by Thom Eberhardt
• November 16, 1984

Survivors of a comet that has turned most of humanity into dust or zombies must navigate their strange new world.

Night of the Comet is one of those trashy mid 80s cult classics that is clearly a product of its time. Heck when I was watching this someone walked in the room and commented how 80s it looked. It also didn’t hurt that “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” was playing in the scene so there’s that.

This came out two years before Haley’s Comet came near Earth and I remember even then there was a strong interest in the event. This was clearly in part born of that very interest. And it didn’t hurt that some people were predicting doom and gloom with the approach of Haley’s Comet. 

In this film a rather unrealistic looking comet approaches Earth and after some weird noise and lights it turns most of the human population into dust much like in an episode of the original Star Trek show. Speaking of Star Trek, Robert Beltran of Star Trek: Voyager shows up in this as an individual at a radio station named Hector.

Hector being a supporting character is joined by Catherine Mary Stewart as Regina “Reggie” Belmont and Kelli Maroney as Samantha “Sam” Belmont who are some very 80s characters and whose introduction takes up waaaaaay more time than Hector’s.

You may be asking why they survived while others did not. They stayed inside when others were outside watching the show. And that initially appears to be the only requirement for survival. There is also the implication that limited exposure leads to a zombie-like state though we only ever really see two or three zombies despite Hector’s statement of large numbers roaming about.

In this story our heroes encounter a group of scientist survivors seeking other survivors to use their blood to make a serum to treat their exposure. These scientists were inside but left one vent open so now they are going to die. Hector spent the night in the back of a truck boinking while Reggie and Sam were in their house because they were pissed at their philandering evil stepmom but are just fine. In other words, the logic guiding things is a touch inconsistent. Reggie, Sam, and Hector should be seeing something happen to themselves but all we get are stress rashes from Sam.

Our villain scientists are more jerks or even assholes than truly evil despite their quest for fresh blood. Their approach is clinical but if it was not for Dr. Carter (Geoffrey Lewis) they would probably be indifferent until they died. These people are very dispassionate over their eventual deaths.

This think tank is the overarching threat and not zombies. They are hoping to distill a serum to treat the effects of their degeneration with the blood of survivors. I’m just having a real hard time with the science here. These people were under better conditions than the survivors they are making a serum from but those survivors are not deteriorating. They really make no distinction as to how that’s possible.

Despite being an apocalyptic film with humanity nearly wiped out, there is a strange lightness to it in comparison to the subject matter. It borders on being a fun adventure. It is the complete antithesis of Mad Max or Night of the Living Dead. And the ending of this movie is very upbeat.

This movie introduces stuff that goes nowhere such as the stepmother who is cheating on their dad with a neighbor. That is in addition to the mentioned groups of zombies moving about and the physical degeneration that our heroes show no concern over.

This is not scary horror but it’s just trashy enjoyment. This is the most B of B movies. There’s some silliness and weirdness but no hard scares. Even what should’ve been a jump scare where the creepy boyfriend at the movie house got killed by the zombie wasn’t even a good jump scare. You are happy to see the first kill of the story.

Night of the Comet is one of those things that shouldn’t work but does. It’s dumb and perhaps not the most sophisticated movie but rather just fun. I recommend it!