Night of the Comet (A-)
	STARS... Geoffrey Lewis, Mary Woronov, Catherine Mary Stewart, Sharon Farrell, and Kelli Maroney. PLOT SUMMARY... When a comet visits the Earth, it kills almost everybody except some cute girls, a hunky guy, some zombies, and some government researchers. QUICK SCAN... This film could be compared to "The Omega Man". NIGHT OF THE COMET features action, FX, and some comedy. Catherine Mary Stewart is entertaining as a perky, Valley Girl, comet disaster survivor. Geoffrey Lewis is a creepy, bad guy. Well photographed shots of a suddenly deserted Los Angeles provide memorable screen images.
DIRECTOR: Thom Eberhardt YEAR & RATING: 1984 (PG-13) BEST BETS: The Last Starfighter Nightflyer Def Con 4	SYNOPSIS... When a comet flys past Earth, it kills almost everybody. Fortunately, some cute girls survive. They even find a cute guy to fight over. They have fun for awhile, shopping and stuff. But then Zombies show up, and that dampens the party spirit. When research scientists take the girls back to a research station, it turns out he wants to drain their blood to create an antidote. Fortunately the cute guy rescues the girls and takes them back to Los Angeles, where all live happily ever after.
Review: Director Thom Eberhardt's NIGHT OF THE COMET is another one of those "What if everybody on Earth died except a hand full of people?" movies. It has its moments. Catharine Mary Stewart, ("The Last Starfighter"), is a perky usher at downtown L.A.'s El Rey movie theater. She wants to spend the night in the projection booth with her boyfriend. When her mom doesn't buy her comet watching cover story, Catharine snaps, "Like, I'm eighteen, okay, and I can watch the comet wherever I want to watch the comet". It's this kind of Valley Girl dialogue that's part of the fun of this picture. While Catharine and her boyfriend make love in the steel lined projection booth, most everybody else around town that night are at "Comet Parties" outside, celebrating the return of a celestial body that last visited Earth in dinosaur times. The next day, Los Angeles is deserted. We see cars abandoned at intersections, a lone bicycle out front of an empty school. It is in these shots that Director of Photography, Arthur Albert, really excels, convincingly conveying the mood and feeling of a suddenly deserted metropolis. When Catharine goes home, she finds most people in the town are gone, except her sister. Outside empty clothing lies on the ground, with red dust nearby. Before too long, true to their Valley Girl mentality, they decide to go shopping. The scene of them dancing and trying on clothes at the mall, while "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" plays, is my favorite scene in the movie. Eventually Catharine and her sister encounter bloodthirsty Zombies, survivors of the comet, and government survivor/researchers, headed by Geoffrey Lewis, ("Every Which Way But Loose"). The zombie makeup is not very effective. As for Lewis, he's the wrong type to cast for the supposed good guy, so its not too surprising when he goes Zombie. Catharine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney's, perky performances are fun to watch. And Director, Thom Eberhardt, with Director of Photography, Albert, have made great use of various downtown Los Angeles. These two factors alone make the film worth seeing. NIGHT OF THE COMET should be fairly watchable for most Sci-Fi viewers. Those not into the Valley Girl scene may be turned off. NIGHT OF THE COMET offers a reasonably diverting night's entertainment.