We all have certain movies we love. Movies we respect without question because of either tradition, childhood love, or because they’ve always been classics. However, as time keeps ticking, do those classics still hold up? Do they remain must see? So…the point of this column is to determine how a film holds up for a modern horror audience, to see if it stands the Test of Time.
DIRECTED BY THOM EBHARDT
STARRING CATHERINE MARY STEWART, KELLI MARONEY, GEOFFREY LEWIS, MARY WORONOV
With Turkey Day on the brink, here’s hoping all y’all horror heads have a happy holiday season!
As such, we look ahead toward the season of Yule with a trivial query: what is your all-time favorite Christmas zombie flick? Last year’s ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE is a healthy contender, no doubt, but to my mind, there’s only one definitive answer. That’s right y’all, I’m talking about Thom Eberhardt’s wildly entertaining and extremely enjoyable 1984 sci-fi-horror-comedy mash-up NIGHT OF THE COMET. Shot on location in Los Angeles, the film executes its ambitious size, scale, and scope of a sprawling urban story with a paltry budget of $700,000, earning a whopping $14 million in worldwide grosses. Of course, that was then and this is now. As NIGHT OF THE COMET (GET IT HERE) celebrates its 35th anniversary this month, it’s only right we judge how the film has so far fared against The Test of Time!
THE STORY: With a working title of TEENAGE MUTANT HORROR COMET ZOMBIES, it’s worth noting the film was designed from the onset as an obvious B-grade ode to silly 50s sci-fi films that often revolved around some kind of intergalactic space object falling to Earth and befouling its population. It’s also worth noting that Joss Whedon dug this flick so much that he based the teeter-tottering tone between humor and horror in the film for his 1992 film BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Anyway, Eberhardt penned the script himself, asking teenagers in the process of what they’d do in the case of a cataclysmic event. The result feels genuine, with the story revolving around two highly compelling sisters – Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart) and Samantha (Kelli Maroney) – who must survive an apocalyptic zombie onslaught when a malefic comet crashes to Earth and turns L.A. into a smoggy red patina populated by flesh-famished ghouls. What the f*ck is not to love about that?!
Once the whole town preps for a Comet Watching Event, Reg and Sam luck out by falling asleep inside at the time of arrival. Reg was too busy making out with the ever-sleazy Larry (Michael Bowen), while Sam was getting abused by her step-mom Doris (Sharon Ferrell). Bummed by not witnessing the comet, the gals soon learn that the entire viewing population has been reduced to red dust (brick dust was used). The only things left on the streets are irradiated bloodsuckers and fetid-faced skin-swallowers, which the sisters must evade and/or kill en route to contacting authorities via radio. Along the way, they meet Hector (Robert Beltran), who Reg slowly begins a romance with. But it isn’t until they come across a savage band of outlaws in a mall and nefarious government sect intent on manufacturing a serum to reverse the zombification process. Dr. Carter (Geoffrey Lewis) and Audrey White (Mary Woronov) preside over this process, which Sam and Reg realize is against their interest in the end.
WHAT HOLDS-UP: There is still so much to enjoy in NOTC that it’s honestly hard to decide where the merits start. For me though, it has to be the lovability of the films two strong female leads, both the characters as written, as well as the concomitant performances by Stewart and Maroney. The introduction of both characters creates instant empathy/sympathy. Reg is a videogame obsessive who is denied the chance to view the comet show because she has to work as a movie theater usher. We instantly sense Reg is a strong-willed and tough-minded young woman who doesn’t take shit from anyone, including her annoying boyfriend Larry.
Sam, on the other hand, is physically abused before being denied the chance to go out and view the comet show. Therefore, she has our heart from the get-go. But even beyond that, the way these characters are written makes you want to ride with them throughout. These aren’t lame, two-dimensional cardboard cutouts, these are fully-functional and well-rounded characters who are perfectly cast. Straight up, Sam is one of my all-time favorite female characters in any 80s horror movie ever made. She’s cute, quirky, funny, sexy, charming, and totally badass when she needs to be. The sisterly bonds the two showcases throughout is an original dynamic we don’t often see in a horror film, and one that truly holds up well in 2019.
What also holds serve are the wonderfully vivid and immersive set-pieces in the film. The opening movie theater locale is awesome in the way it sets the tone and foreshadows events with regaled mise-en-scene, be it the RED DUST poster or DEATH RACE 2000 lobby-card (also starring Woronov). This extends to the neon-drenched radio station, in which Sam and Reg find refuge before meeting and trading witty banter with Hector (“date night in the barrio?”). My favorite setting though has to be the mall, which not only touches on the Romero subtext of zombified consumerism but also features one of the best montage sequences in the entire film. As the two sisters party in the mall, trying on every piece of clothing and makeup, they’re accosted by an armed foursome of vigilante goons who, in addition to the zombie scourge, they must thwart and escape from.
The last locale worth mentioning is the underground government hospital, where Sam eventually reunites with Reg en route to their final escape. These are gorgeously decorated and highly enthralling sets to spend time in as a viewer, and remain among the movies lasting pillars. Also, mention must be made of how eerie the shots of desolate L.A. are in the film. Eberhardt shot these scenes for real, in the early morning hours, quickly, in between traffic signals. The blood-red filtered L.A. skyline adds a creepy sense of silence, stillness, emptiness and foreboding feeling in a way we wouldn’t see again until I AM LEGEND two decades later.
What really sets the movie apart though, for better not worse, for the long-haul not the short-term, is the wall-to-wall 80s soundtrack. Source music is used diegetically and non-diegetically in a way that keeps the movie feeling alive, exciting, colorful, and downright fun. And it’s not even that hit songs are used (beyond a cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun), but there’s a consistent sonic through-line that adds a certain party vibe to the movie works incredibly well in its favor. In this regard, the movie functions not just as a rare Christmas zombie gift, but also as one of the coolest hangout horror movies this side of RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.
WHAT BLOW NOW: Aside from some outmoded VFX, I can’t find much wrong about NIGHT OF THE COMET in 2019. In fact, the way puts such strong female leads at the front and center of the film, you could argue this movie was progressive and ahead of its time. No, what really blows now is, given the commercial and critical success of the film at the time, the lack of any sort of sequel. WTF!
THE VERDICT: After 35 years, NIGHT OF THE COMET still has far more in its favor than disfavor. It starts with the sisterly dynamic and the badass characters written by Eberhardt, and his subsequent casting of the perfect young women to play Reg and Sam. The merits extend to the thrilling set pieces and radical 80s soundtrack that injects the film with a pleasurable spirit. NIGHT OF THE COMET is not only one of the best 80s zombie flicks, to our minds, it’s the definitive Christmastime zombie movie to watch every single year. Happy holidays y’all!