Night Of The Comet
What in some ways is just another goofball relic of the 80s (a sci-fi film with elements of Valley Girl and Fast Times) is elevated quite nicely by the charisma of its two lead actresses, playing two teenage sisters who manage to survive the wrath of a comet which has caused the death of every human being on the planet and the zombification of quite a few others. While the circumstances of both sisters surviving is a bit contrived (one was having sex in a movie theater projection booth while the other was hiding out in a storage shed during the once in a lifetime outer space light show the comet was supposed to provide), once they find each other and set out on the rest of the movie, they certainly carry things well: Catherine Mary Stewart seemed destined for stardom in 1984, and while she never found it, her talent and natural appeal rises even above some awful dialogue in the script, particularly a prolonged conversation about Superman’s powers; Kelli Maroney as the blond cheerleader younger sibling brings a carefree sex appeal to the proceedings, bouncing around and keeping the mood light with her almost blasé attitude towards the disaster, though when the story calls for her to show some real emotion about the events, she more than answers the call, and the viewer tends to care and be happy for her when things go her way (especially at the end). The film does bring in an obligatory romance for Stewart with another survivor, a beefy Mexican trucker played by Robert (Star Trek: Voyager) Beltran, but unfortunately the chemistry just isn’t there, and we feel this beautiful girl is literally hooking up with this guy just because he’s the “last man on Earth”. The film gains a lot of steam with a tense standoff in a department store between the girls and a group of stockboys turned zombies, whose leader (Ivan Nagy) brings a perfect mixture of psycho creepiness to the film, and then with a group of government scientists (who are slowly dying), whose master plan is to bring survivors to their compound, render them braindead, and drain their blood in a mad attempt to develop a serum. Geoffery Lewis as the leader of the scientists brings an unnerving quality to his part as he slowly degenerates throughout the film, and cult legend Mary Woronov as the female scientist with a conscience (who wears legwarmers) brings a lot of dignity to her death scene. The film is nearly undone by a non-stop soundtrack made up of bad, generic, wanna-be 80s music (including a bastardized version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun), but in some ways it helps keep the viewer reminded of the spirit in which the film was made. Overall, a moderately entertaining feature with a slightly overrated cult reputation elevated highly by its two fantastic lead actresses…
7/10