Night of the Comet is a 1984 science-fiction horror feature film written and directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran, Kelli Maroney (Chopping Mall), Sharon Farrell (It’s Alive; Sweet 16), Geoffrey Lewis (Human Experiments) and Mary Woronov (Eating Raoul).
Plot:
The Earth is passing through the tail of a comet, an event which has not occurred in 65 million years, the last time coinciding with the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs. On the night of the comet’s passage, large crowds gather outside to watch and celebrate.
Eighteen-year-old Regina “Reggie” Belmont (Catherine Mary Stewart) works at a movie theater in southern California. She is annoyed to find the initials DMK have the sixth-highest score on the theater’s arcade game, all the other scores being hers. She stays after the theater closes to become number one again and have sex with her boyfriend, the theater projectionist, in the steel-lined projection booth.
Meanwhile, Reggie’s 16-year-old sister Samantha “Sam” (Kelli Maroney) argues with their stepmother (Sharon Farrell), who punches her in the face. The next morning, a reddish haze covers everything, and there are no signs of life, only piles of red dust surrounding heaps of clothing. Unaware that anything strange has happened, Larry (Michael Bowen) goes outside and is killed by a zombie…
Buy Arrow Video Blu-ray + DVD from Amazon.co.uk
Special Edition Contents:
- High definition digital transfer
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Thom Eberhardt
- Audio Commentary with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart
- Audio Commentary with Production Designer John Muto
- Valley Girls At The End Of The World Interviews with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart
- The Last Man On Earth? An Interview with Actor Robert Beltran
- Curse of the Comet An Interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator David B. Miller
- Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork to be revealed!
- Collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film
Reviews:
“A successful pastiche of numerous science fiction films, executed with an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek flair that compensates for its absence in originality.” Variety
“What really makes Night of the Comet such a joy isn’t the nostalgia rush it provides, but the two central characters. These girls just get on with it, dealing with the apocalypse with resourcefulness, crackerjack wit, and machine guns.” SFX
Buy Night of the Comet on Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com
Blu-ray bonus features:
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Thom Eberhardt
- Audio Commentary with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart
- Audio Commentary with Production Designer John Muto
- Valley Girls At The End Of The World – Interviews with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart
- The Last Man On Earth? – An Interview with Actor Robert Beltran
- Curse of the Comet – An Interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator David B. Miller
- Still Galleries (Behind the Scenes and Official Stills)
- Theatrical Trailer
“Thom Eberhardt does a great job at directing with an equal balance of suspense and comic levity and even interjected a lot of horror for a PG-13 movie. The two funniest scenes in the film involve a shopping montage which turns into a new wave zombie shoot’em up at a nearby mall (scored with a bootleg version of Cyndi Lauper’s hit, Girls Just Want to Have Fun) and the other is when Hector battles a zombie child in his mom’s East LA home. Beyond that, there are plenty of funny lines… ” Strange Kids Club
” …moves quickly enough, but is filled with hilariously cheesy lines, non-sequiturs, and cardboard characters. There’s some decent plotting, a nice twist towards the end, and an attempt at commentary, but the real fun of Night of the Comet comes in a few montage sequences.” dcp film
Cast and characters:
- 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
- Stanley Brock … Mel
- Marc Poppel … Danny Mason Keener / DMK
- Raymond Lynch … Chuck
- Bob Perlow … TV Reporter
Film Facts:
The working title was Teenage Comet Zombies
