ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - November 16th
"NIGHT OF THE COMET" released in 1984
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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, which takes place eleven days before Christmas, large crowds gather outside to watch and celebrate. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Regina "Reggie" Belmont (Catherine Mary Stewart), who works in a local movie theater, stays after the theater closes to play her favorite arcade game until another players score (with the intials DMK) is removed and have sex with her boyfriend Larry (Michael Bowen), the theater projectionist, in the steel-lined projection booth. At the same time, Reggie's 16-year-old sister Samantha "Sam" (Kelli Maroney) is arguing with their stepmother Doris 9Sharon Farrell), who punches her in the face. Sam then spends the night in a steel backyard shed.
The next morning, a reddish haze covers everything, and there are no signs of life, only piles of red dust and heaps of clothing. Unaware that anything strange has happened, Larry goes outside and is killed by a zombie wielding a pipe wrench. When Reggie goes looking for Larry, she encounters the zombie, but escapes. She heads home to find her sister alive, and later realize that because they both spent the night shielded from cosmic effects by steel, they were saved from the comet's effects. After figuring out what has happened, they hear a disc jockey and race to the radio station, only to find it was just a recording, but they do meet up with another survivor, Hector Gomez (Robert Beltran), who spent the night in the back of his steel truck. When Sam playfully speaks into the radio station's microphone, she is heard by researchers in an underground installation out in the desert, including Dr. Carter (Geoffrey Lewis) and Audrey White (Mary Woronov). They note that the zombies, though less exposed to the comet, will eventually disintegrate into dust themselves.
Back in town, Hector briefly leaves the sisters to search for his missing family, and Reggie and Sam are later attacked by some zombie stock boys in a department store. They are saved by the arrival of a rescue team from the scientist's Think Tank, and Reggie is taken back to the base, while White stays behind with Sam to wait for Hector to come back. But White kills the scientist who remained behind with her and tells Sam and Reggie the truth - the researchers had suspected and prepared for the comet's effects, but inadvertently left their ventilation system open and the fans running during the comet's passage, allowing the deadly dust to permeate their base. Now the dying scientists hunt down and render healthy survivors brain dead so they harvest their untainted blood to keep the disease at bay while they search desperately for a cure. After confessing, White commits suicide and Sam and Hector resolve to rescue Reggie from the hands of the murderous scientists holding her captive!
The next morning, a reddish haze covers everything, and there are no signs of life, only piles of red dust and heaps of clothing. Unaware that anything strange has happened, Larry goes outside and is killed by a zombie wielding a pipe wrench. When Reggie goes looking for Larry, she encounters the zombie, but escapes. She heads home to find her sister alive, and later realize that because they both spent the night shielded from cosmic effects by steel, they were saved from the comet's effects. After figuring out what has happened, they hear a disc jockey and race to the radio station, only to find it was just a recording, but they do meet up with another survivor, Hector Gomez (Robert Beltran), who spent the night in the back of his steel truck. When Sam playfully speaks into the radio station's microphone, she is heard by researchers in an underground installation out in the desert, including Dr. Carter (Geoffrey Lewis) and Audrey White (Mary Woronov). They note that the zombies, though less exposed to the comet, will eventually disintegrate into dust themselves.
Back in town, Hector briefly leaves the sisters to search for his missing family, and Reggie and Sam are later attacked by some zombie stock boys in a department store. They are saved by the arrival of a rescue team from the scientist's Think Tank, and Reggie is taken back to the base, while White stays behind with Sam to wait for Hector to come back. But White kills the scientist who remained behind with her and tells Sam and Reggie the truth - the researchers had suspected and prepared for the comet's effects, but inadvertently left their ventilation system open and the fans running during the comet's passage, allowing the deadly dust to permeate their base. Now the dying scientists hunt down and render healthy survivors brain dead so they harvest their untainted blood to keep the disease at bay while they search desperately for a cure. After confessing, White commits suicide and Sam and Hector resolve to rescue Reggie from the hands of the murderous scientists holding her captive!
TRIVIA: Joss Whedon has cited this film as a "big influence" for his original film script of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), which is rebooted in his television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).
Top: Sister's Sam (Kelli Maroney) and Reggie (Catherine Mary Stewart) find themselves as one of the few survivors of the passing comet the night before;
Above: They eventually meet another survivor Hector (Robert Beltran)
When writing the script for, director Thom Eberhardt wanted to merge the idea of strong female protagonists with his love of post-apocalyptic films set in empty cities. For inspiration, Eberhardt approached real-life teenage girls - whom he met while filming PBS specials - and without telling the girls details about the script's premise, he asked them to describe how they would react to an apocalyptic event. Most of the interviewees saw the scenario as an exciting adventure and only saw a downside to the experience when Eberhardt brought up the subject of dating! Using their answers, Eberhardt wrote the script to be lighthearted and adventuresome, with the then-working title of Teenage Mutant Comet Zombies.
Eberhardt initially had trouble convincing the studio to let him direct the film, but they relented when he held out, as Atlantic Releasing Corporation was looking to immediately invest $700,000 in a teen-targeted project to capitalize on the success of their 1983 hit Valley Girl and the popularity of quirky drive-in films like Repo Man. Atlantic then assigned two producers, Andrew Lane and Wayne Crawford, to the project, who initially resented being assigned to such a low-budget B movie. Lane and Crawford eventually clashed with Eberhardt during pre-production, and at one point even tried to have the debut director replaced.
Eberhardt initially had trouble convincing the studio to let him direct the film, but they relented when he held out, as Atlantic Releasing Corporation was looking to immediately invest $700,000 in a teen-targeted project to capitalize on the success of their 1983 hit Valley Girl and the popularity of quirky drive-in films like Repo Man. Atlantic then assigned two producers, Andrew Lane and Wayne Crawford, to the project, who initially resented being assigned to such a low-budget B movie. Lane and Crawford eventually clashed with Eberhardt during pre-production, and at one point even tried to have the debut director replaced.
[opening lines]
Narrator: Since before recorded time, it had swung through the universe in an elliptical orbit so large that its very existence remained a secret of time and space; but now in the last few years of the 20th century, the visitor was returning. The citizens of earth would get an extra Christmas present this year as their planet orbited through the tail of the comet. Scientists predicted a light show of stellar proportions, something not seen on earth for 65 million years, indeed not since the time that the dinosaurs disappeared, virtually overnight. There were a few who saw this as more than just a coincidence, but most didn't...
Top: The survivors learn that those not turned to red dust by the comet, are now flesh eating zombies!;
Above: A group of desperate scientists, led by Dr. Carter (Geoffrey Lewis) and Audrey White (Mary Woronov) struggle to find a cure
Eberhardt soon cast Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney as sisters Regina "Reggie" and Samantha "Sam" Belmont, with Robert Beltran as Hector Gomez. Beltran initially turned down the role because he didn't want to play Hector as a typical 'Cholo' type, but was convinced to stay after hearing Eberhardt's thoughts on how to portray the character. It was Beltran who later recommended Mary Woronov for the part of disillusioned scientist Audrey White. Sharon Farrell soon joined the cast as Reggie and sam's cruel stepmother Doris, and even cast Farrell's own son, Chance Boyer, in a small role as the little boy survivor Brian. Finally, veteran film actor Geoffrey Lewis came onboard as Dr. Carter, the leader of the think tank.
The scenes of an empty Los Angeles were filmed in the morning on normal business days, with shots of the barren city being done quickly while the traffic was held up at stoplights. In fact the two police officers who are seen riding motorcycles in Samantha's nightmare were actually location cops who worked on the movie stopping traffic so filming can be done. The radio station set was later built in an abandoned warehouse, with the sequence at the department store being shot at night. The exterior shots of the Think Tank base were achieved with miniatures and forced perspective.
Star Stewart did almost all of her own stunts, except for riding the motorcycle through Los Angeles. The long shots of Stewart on the motorcycle are a stunt woman while the close-ups of Stewart were done by putting the motorcycle on top of a flatbed truck. Maroney later improvised the Uzi line when the weapon jammed for real - Eberhardt told the cast to react to any unexpected occurrences as their characters would do, since time and money were tight and they needed to avoid unnecessary retakes. As filming continued, people kept asking Eberhardt about DMK, until he felt obligated to have DMK appear as Danny Mason Keener (played by Marc Poppel) at the end of the movie - complete with DMK vanity plates, no less!
The scenes of an empty Los Angeles were filmed in the morning on normal business days, with shots of the barren city being done quickly while the traffic was held up at stoplights. In fact the two police officers who are seen riding motorcycles in Samantha's nightmare were actually location cops who worked on the movie stopping traffic so filming can be done. The radio station set was later built in an abandoned warehouse, with the sequence at the department store being shot at night. The exterior shots of the Think Tank base were achieved with miniatures and forced perspective.
Star Stewart did almost all of her own stunts, except for riding the motorcycle through Los Angeles. The long shots of Stewart on the motorcycle are a stunt woman while the close-ups of Stewart were done by putting the motorcycle on top of a flatbed truck. Maroney later improvised the Uzi line when the weapon jammed for real - Eberhardt told the cast to react to any unexpected occurrences as their characters would do, since time and money were tight and they needed to avoid unnecessary retakes. As filming continued, people kept asking Eberhardt about DMK, until he felt obligated to have DMK appear as Danny Mason Keener (played by Marc Poppel) at the end of the movie - complete with DMK vanity plates, no less!
Above: Writer/director Thom Eberhardt
Night of the Comet opened in the US on November 16, 1984, earning $3,580,578 in its opening weekend (coming in at third place) and stayed in theaters for six weeks - grossing $14,418,922 total in the US, making Night of the Comet another financial success for Atlantic. The film is also noted as one of the first mainstream films to carry the MPAA PG-13 rating.
Variety wrote that Eberhardt "creates a visually arresting B-picture in the neon-primary colors of the cult hit Liquid Sky as well as pointing similarities with Five, The Day of the Triffids, The Omega Man, Dawn of the Dead and Last Woman on Earth. They described the film as "a successful pastiche of numerous science fiction films, executed with an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek flair that compensates for its absence in originality. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a good-natured, end-of-the-world B-movie" whose "humor augments rather than upstages the mechanics of the melodrama", while author Neil Gaiman wrote in 1985 that the film was "one of the most amusing, witty, imaginative, and thought-provoking films I've seen that was made with no budget and is also cheap exploitation."
Variety wrote that Eberhardt "creates a visually arresting B-picture in the neon-primary colors of the cult hit Liquid Sky as well as pointing similarities with Five, The Day of the Triffids, The Omega Man, Dawn of the Dead and Last Woman on Earth. They described the film as "a successful pastiche of numerous science fiction films, executed with an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek flair that compensates for its absence in originality. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a good-natured, end-of-the-world B-movie" whose "humor augments rather than upstages the mechanics of the melodrama", while author Neil Gaiman wrote in 1985 that the film was "one of the most amusing, witty, imaginative, and thought-provoking films I've seen that was made with no budget and is also cheap exploitation."
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 83%
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