Night of the Comet (1984)

A comet wipes out most of life on Earth, leaving two Valley Girls fighting against cannibal zombies and a sinister group of scientists.

Director:

Thom Eberhardt

Writer:

Thom Eberhardt

Stars:

Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Robert Beltran

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Beltran	...	Hector Gomez
Catherine Mary Stewart	...	Regina Belmont
Kelli Maroney	...	Samantha Belmont
Sharon Farrell	...	Doris Belmont
Mary Woronov	...	Audrey White
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Dr. Carter
Peter Fox	...	Dr. Wilson
John Achorn	...	Oscar
Michael Bowen	...	Larry Dupree
Devon Ericson	...	Minder
Lissa Layng	...	Davenport
Ivan E. Roth	...	Willy
Janice Kawaye	...	Sarah
Chance Boyer	...	Brian
Andrew Boyer	...	Rogers

Storyline

It's the first comet to buzz our planet Earth in 65 million years, and everyone seems to be celebrating its imminent arrival. Everyone except Regina Belmont, and her younger sister Samantha, two Valley Girls who care more about fashion trends than celestial phenomena. But upon daybreak, when the girls discover that they are the only residents of Los Angeles whom the comet hasn't vaporized or turned into a zombie, they would do what all Valley Girls do - they go shopping. However, with the help of a friendly truck driver, the girls save Earth and escape from flesh-eating zombies and blood-seeking scientists in hot pursuit.

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Plot Keywords:

post apocalypse | sister sister relationship | radio station | comet | survival | 

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Taglines:

They came. They shopped. They saved the world!

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 November 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Teenage Mutant Horror Comet Zombies

Filming Locations:

19174 Dunure Place, San Fernando Valley, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$700,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,580,578, 18 November 1984

Gross USA:

$14,418,922

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$14,418,922

Company Credits

Production Co:

Coleman/Roseblatt Productions, Film Development Fund

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mary Woronov and Robert Beltran also appeared together in Eating Raoul (1982).

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Goofs

When the lab generator shuts off the victim on support dies due to the respirator stopping and he shown dying via a shot of a heart monitor screen flat lining despite the fact that the power failure would have rendered the monitor inoperative as well.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: Since before recorded time, it had swung through the universe in an elliptical orbit so large that its very existence remained a secret of time and space; but now in the last few years of the 20th century, the visitor was returning. The citizens of earth would get an extra Christmas present this year as their planet orbited through the tail of the comet. Scientists predicted a light show of stellar proportions, something not seen on earth for 65 million years, indeed not since the ...

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Connections

Featured in In Search of Darkness (2019)

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Soundtracks

Let My Fingers Do the Talking
Written by Kenny Lee Lewis and Dianne Steinberg (as Diane Steinberg)
Performed by Stallion
Produced by Don Perry and Bob Summers

User Reviews

It's, like, the end of the world and I don't have anything to wear!

"Night of the Comet" is a truly fun and engaging little genre effort of the 80's, but surely some of its hardcore fans are slightly overestimating the value and significance of this film. I've encountered reviews stating that "Night of the Comet" is a quintessential gem of 80's horror and that it's easily one of the most intelligent tributes/parodies to older B-movies ever made. Okay, the script is quite clever and writer/director Thom Eberhardt definitely knows a lot about all the post-apocalyptic classics of the 50's and 60's, but I honestly doubt it ever was his intention to direct the ULTIMATE homage. "Night of the Comet" is more like a miniature-tribute! All the obligatory story lines and sub plots to create an end-of-the-world epic are present, but Eberhardt's only disposed of a limited budget and thus the elaboration is only small-scaled and rather cheesy. There are mutated zombies, crazed scientists and hostile groups of survivors on the rampage, but all just in small doses. The movie opens during a bright summer evening, when the entire world is preparing to see a mesmerizing and once-in-a-lifetime ecological phenomenon, namely the passing of a comet. Two high-school teenagers who missed out on the event (sisters, moreover, what are the odds?) wake up the next morning and slowly realize that the comet's radiation killed every human being in L.A, only leaving behind small piles of red dust. They entrench themselves in an abandoned radio station, meet up with another sole (and male) survivor, battle the occasional mutated zombie and – of course – go shopping without credit cards. Things get slightly more dangerous when a bunch of dying scientists, who predicted the extinction of the human race, try to abduct the survivors to steal their still uncontaminated blood. The tone of "Night of the Comet" is continuously light-headed, still director Ebarhardt manages to maintain a more or less sinister atmosphere which never allow you to forget that the whole of mankind just got wiped out. The girls, although mostly concerned about fashion trends and pop music, understand the seriousness of the situation and deal with it the best way they possibly can. There are still a handful of creepy sequences (the confrontation in the mall) and well-developed Sci-Fi ideas (the diabolical scientists), but the emphasis largely lies on the two girls and their typically 80's pop-culture life-styles. I've never heard this many campy pop-songs in one movie, not even in a musical, and the special & make-up effects are kept to a minimum. The acting performances of Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney are more adequate than you'd expect, as it certainly isn't easy for young actresses to portray teenage character that are stereotypical, ignorant, fashionable and yet likable at the same time. "Night of the Comet" certainly isn't brilliant, probably even a bit overrated by its fans, but still worth a peek in case you have a weakness for 80's cinema.