Night of the Comet

Welcome back to the blog! Today we start 80s Horror Throwback. Here's hoping at any rate, all the films chosen for this I have never seen. GASP! Yes, it is true. I am slightly lacking in my 80s Horror alumni. With that I bring you mad scientists, a scourge of zombies and two Valley girls. For those that already know this title, yeah it never fell on my radar. As for the rest of us, sit back and bear with me. This is Night of the Comet a.k.a. Teenage Mutant Horror Comet Zombies.

SMG toting teens!

Got to be honest, never saw the working title turned print. At the helm of this ship is writer/director Thom Eberhardt (Sole Survivor, The Night Before, Without a Clue, Captain Ron, Face Down, Ratz and I Was a Teenage Faust), so with his colorful background he has handled quite a few genre so should be fun.  Warning for younger and mature readers!   There will be...80s hair! Teased with Aqua Net or possibly more Mousse than Bullwinkle. You have been warned!

This comet returns to the planet Earth and the world seems totally stoked. (80s lingo, I apologize) Well that is except for Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart of The Apple, The Last Starfighter, Weekend at Bernie's, Dead at 17, Limitless and Red Dead Redemotion II) Samantha Belmont (Kelli Maroney of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Chopping Mall, Ryan's Hope, Big Bad Mama II, Not of This Earth, Scream Queen Hot Tub Party, Pop Star and Hell's Kitty). In their collective off hours not working for a movie theater as ushers, I guess they kill werewolves and vampires. Belmont...Castlevania joke? Sigh... Moving on, there are perks for Regina as she's necking with Danny Picket er um Depree (Michael Bowen of Valley Girl, Private Resort, Iron Eagle, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Walking Tall and Lost) in the projection booth.

Zombie Grady Sanford, NOoOoOoOo!!!!

Meanwhile Samantha is stuck at a Comet party, watching her way too flirty stepmom Doris(Sharon Farrell of Marlowe, The Reivers, Lone Wolf McQuade, Can't Buy Me Love, Arccade, Yakuza Connection JAG and Broken at Love) try to mount everything while hubby is out of town.

A low filter over the camera with dust blowing everywhere indicates that L.A.isn't doing so hot. Red dust blowing all around when it dawns on you that red dust is PEOPLE!!! Cars, homes and the streets are cluttered with crumpled piles of clothes. One could almost call them the lucky few, just obliterated to carbon atoms. Regina wakes after a most likely disappointing sex with Depree and stumbles into what I can only describe as a survival horror video game but she only gets one life. DUN DUN DUN!!! Thankfully she does upgrade past her melee weapon, the monkey wrench and has borrowed a cycle to check on her sister Sam.

Now how does a Valley girl defend herself, you ask? Well she's an Army brat, so that means hand to hand and firearms training. Noticing the downtown is as deserted as a Toto concert, Regina makes her way back home.

Last Known Photograph.

The zombies are capable of speech and using weapons, so no Romero formula there. Maybe their just hideously scarred cannibals. Yeah that makes everything so much better. The whole while I am watching this when trucker Hector Gomez (Robert Beltran of Calender Girl Murders, Slam Dance, Models Inc., Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, Manticore and Big Love) comes on screen, I am torn between making Lone Wolf McQuade Kayo references or Chakotay Star Trek:Voyager references.

During the interval, an underground location known as a think tank actually talks to Sam on the radio but she's a bit of an airhead and didn't get details.

The shopping montage reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead. Jamming out to Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", was a nice touch as well. A shoot-out with Mall Mauraders was interesting as well.

What you have hear is a post apocalyptic film with a touch of Dawn of the Dead, Valley Girl and Better Off Dead. Gruesome FX, kick ass girls and who truly knows the think tank's ultimate goals.

With half a million in the kitty for pre and post production, our zombie FX was handled by veteran makeup artists David B. Miller (Freddy's Nightmares, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Needful Things, My Girl 2, Night of the Scarecrom, The Mangler and Batman & Robin) and William Snyder (John Carpenter's The Thing,Trial by Terror, Running Hot, Savage Streets, Night of the Comet and Barfly), this film grossed over 14 million. Not a bad investment there at all..

The biggest impressive creation was the think tank. All done with scale models and forced perspective and trust me, without the Blu-Ray release; it is damn hard to tell otherwise. That gorgeous bike was a 1972 650cc Triumph T120 Bonneville and yeah it is damn hard to come by these days.

Interesting side note, the theater Regina and Depree work at is the El Rey Theater, a historic theater used in films like: Thank God It's Friday, Zombiethon and Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back. Okay, I thought it was interesting,

Finding a copy of this isn't too difficult but thank God I am not doing a Video Review on it. I have to cover international, VHS, re-distribution in the credits or someone would complain. These days, the 2007 MGM release for DVD and the 2013 Shout! Factory Scream! Factory Blu-ray release covers quite a bit. I for one will be adding this to my collection.

Clowns.  Harbingers of Doom.