Night of the Comet (1984)

Have you ever had a movie scene stuck in your head from something that you watched when younger, but were unable to figure out what exactly it was from or when you watched it? For several years I was plaque by just such a situation. In my mind I pictured a movie moment that showed a girl on a motorcycle pulling up to a car waiting at a stoplight on an empty road. At first everything seemed normal, but then the girl realized that the driver was missing. After that my mind would go blank. I was pretty sure the movie had an apocalyptic theme to it but for the life of me could not figure out what title it might belong with or where I had seen it. Making things worse I didn’t have access to a good movie selection, nor could I really pinpoint a good search string on the Internet (now I probably could but back then the internet was difficult to navigate). And then one day last year while my little brother Tom was home on leave after having served in Iraq for a couple years we sat down to watch a movie I had gotten in the mail. It was titled Night of the Comet and was simply one of about three hundred titles I had randomly added to my mail order DVD queue. Neither of us really knew anything about it, but given our love of apocalyptic themed films had a feeling we would probably enjoy it. Little did I know the scene that I had sought out all through high school and in some of the following years was about to appear before my very eyes. It was an exciting moment, one that caused me to blurt out several jumbled together statements about how I had been looking for this movie since my sophomore year, statements that were probably so incoherent that they might have made my brother wonder if I had finally lost focus with reality.

Night of the Comet is the story of two high school sisters -- Regina and Samantha -- who wake up one morning and slowly discover that most of the population was turned to dust while watching a rare astrological event that had last occurred shortly before the dinosaurs went extinct (this would have concerned me from the beginning but I’m kind of a worst case scenario person). Others who experienced smaller exposures to the comet were turned to aggressive flesh eating zombies. Regina and Samantha, however, were spared exposure thanks to their having been surrounded by steel during the event, thus they are allowed to continue living. Naturally there are others who were protected as well, some good, some bad, who Regina and Samantha must deal with as they try to figure out their place in the new empty world. One of the good guys is a man named Hector who the girls meet while seeking shelter in a radio station. He was in the back of his truck with a girl when the comet passed by, a girl who was sadly ripped apart by zombies that morning. The three decide to team up, but first Hector wants to go and check on his family. While waiting for him to return Regina and Samantha do some exploring. Trouble ensures. Fortunately these girls do have skills when it comes to surviving due to their father who was a special forces soldier. Skills alone aren’t always enough when it comes to survival, though. Sometime one needs to be lucky. Will the two sisters be lucky, or will fate deal them a nasty hand during one of their explorative journeys through the seemingly empty city. Also, who are the mysterious group of scientists that were prepared for the comet who have left their underground shelter in search of survivors? Furthermore what is the conflict that seems to plague them, and how will it affect people like Regina and Samantha?

Though it took a while for us to discover this film my little brother and I have now added it to our permanent collection and make a point of watching it whenever he is back in town. The reason for this is simple: the movie is pure fun and contains an underlying layer of comedy that never seems to grow old, yet also doesn’t overshadow the apocalyptic elements that we both love so much. It is also a perfect film for anyone who needs a classic 80s fix, which is something that I know many enjoy seeing from time to time, especially when given in its natural form (ie: a movie that is 80s rather than trying to be 80s). For me there is also a sense of nostalgia when watching film like this, one that brings me back to the days when I was a kid and would stay up late watching similar movies on TV. I can easily picture myself as a teen at one in the morning sitting in the TV area of my parent’s basement watching Night of the Comet on Monster Vision or some other late night horror / sci-fi program, my eyes staying open thanks to the half dozen bottles of Coke I threw back as the night progressed, ones that I probably had to walk to 7-11 to purchase since I didn’t have a drivers license yet. Oh what I wouldn’t give to experience nights like that again; or at least to have programs like that now.

Random thought: Tom and I actually watched this for the first time back to back with Chopping Mall (1986) and thought it was kind of funny that Kelli Moroney (Samantha in Night of the Comet; Alison in Chopping Mall) is pretty much the same character in both. That is in each movie her character’s father is noted as being a military man who taught her how to use firearms.

Possible Blooper: I’m sure this has been brought up before, but it was something I thought about on my latest viewing. How is the car that Regina pulls up to early in the film staying at the light? Did the person put it in park to watch the comet pass overhead? If not I think the car would have started moving forward once the driver disappeared and crashed into something. I know because my mother used to forget to put the car in park a lot when getting out and we would always crash into things.