Night of the Comet is a film I've been hearing about for quite a while. Without doing much research - (less than a day into the re-launch of the blog and I'm already feeling lazy), I think Night is the kind of film that more or less died upon release and only found a cult-foothold once the internet sort of brought it back to life.
And to be honest, I'm not sure how much of the praise is deserved and how much of it is just nostalgia. It wasn't a *bad* movie by any means - it just feels sort of... sparse? Like there just isn't enough for our characters to do. I mean, it's true that Night takes place in a pseudo-post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, where a comet turns just about everyone in the city (and presumably the rest of the world) into dust, so the cast is pretty small. But there just isn't enough action to make things exciting for the first half of the movie. I mean, seeing totally empty downtown LA was cool for a minute, but after a while you want a little something more, you know?
Quickly...
My synopsis: Valley girl sisters Regina and Samantha are amongst the only survivors of a... comet disaster, I guess? They roam about LA, not doing much, in hopes of finding other people who survived The Night of the Comet. Of course, they find more than they bargained for.
Elaborate Genre: Hard 80's, Quirky, Mostly Inoffensive (PG-13) Horror Comedy
Overall: Starts off pretty slow, but likable characters carry you through to the exciting-ish second half. Mostly fun, but not all that memorable.
I guess my big issue is that Night doesn't really have much of an identity as to *what* it is. The back of the blu-ray has a quote saying it's a "pastiche of numerous science fiction films," but to me it felt more aimless than a sci-fi homage. I had always assumed that it was some sort of a zom-com, but what you end up with isn't very well defined - there are a couple of zombie-ish things shambling around here and there, but it's not explained in a way that makes it very engaging. Plus, since there's only a couple of them they never really feel like all that much of a threat. I guess it's a delicate balance in any tongue-in-cheek horror comedy, but here the characters never really feel like they're in much danger for the first half of the film.
I've been referring "the first half" of the film quite a bit, because things pick up considerably once we find out what is *actually* going on. I won't get spoilery here, because I think ultimately Night is a fun movie that's worth seeing. But it's the sort of film where the interesting stuff is loaded into the back-half. Usually, I like the world-building aspects of movies that take place after some sort of cataclysmic event, but those things in Night just aren't that interesting.
Luckily, the characters are likable enough and the performances of Catherine Mary Stewart (as Regina) and Kelli Maroney (as Samantha) are strong enough to carry you through the less-interesting parts of the film. The two have good chemistry with each other, and are both charismatic performers. The script gives the two of them distinct characters and personalities, and they play off of each other well. Although conveniently they both are handy with firearms thanks to their special forces father, which just might come into play... (yep, it's that kind of movie).
Night of the Comet also been noteworthy as a sort of feminist film because the two main characters are women, despite the fact that a dude gets top billing. (In fact, Night was recently featured in Bust magazine for their Spooky October Movie Recommendations.) The female-driven nature of the film is interesting considering it was 1984 and all, but looking at it from 30+ years in the future there are still some problems here. For example, Reg and Samantha are obnoxiously shopping obsessed, and occasionally slip into "damsel(s) in distress" mode. The "Valley Girl" trope and female empowerment angles aren't mutually exclusive, but it just feels kind of wonky here.
But a slow start doesn't stop Night from being mostly fun. While it didn't quite live up to its cult-classic reputation, it was still a good enough time.
I would mostly recommend this film.
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