- Title: Night of the Comet
- IMDb: link
Re-released on 4k, 1984’s Night of the Comet stars Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney as teenage sisters who wake up to a world decimated by a passing comet that vaporizes the vast majority of the populace and leaves others as zombies. Our other survivors are Star Trek: Voyager‘s Robert Beltran, a local gang, and a group of scientists who observed the phenomena from their underground bunker.
One of the first movies released under a PG-13 rating, Night of the Comet works as your basic teen horror film that puts a Valley Girl spin on the story of the final survivors wandering a dystopian future. The first-half, dominated by the immediate aftermath of events and the sisters wandering through the empty streets of Los Angeles, works better than the second where the increasingly deranged scientists take over the storyline.
Fans of The Last Starfighter and Weekend at Bernie‘s will recognize Catherine Mary Stewart who is given the film’s largest role as our protagonist Reggie. Despite its often tongue-in-cheek tone, Night of the Comet isn’t as much fun as either of those two films. However, Stewart’s performance is certainly one of the highlights and Maroney’s performance is one of the influences for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The film’s look is its other main selling point with genuinely creepy empty streets bathed in a red light from the comet. Despite its meager budget, the film did well with both critics and audiences earning back more than 20 times its original budget.
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