OK, I have said before Tubi is the service to go to for weird movies that probably won’t stream anywhere else. I absolutely mean that. There are so many odd and weird movies on Tubi that, so long as I am willing to let something play with commercials, can lead to some odd rewards here and there. Sure, Tubi does have some more mainstream stuff that I have heard of, but those seem to be the exceptions and not the rule.
Case in point: 1984’s Night of the Comet is a pretty darn weird mix of comedy, sci-fi, and horror.
The Earth is about to pass through the tail of a comet that was last in our neck of the solar system 65 million years ago, around the time the dinosaurs went extinct. That means a lot of people are headed out to party that night. Not everyone is out there, though. That’s a good thing. The radiation reduces anyone exposed to it to dust. Partial exposure left the victim in a prolonged state of disintegration, causing a zombie-like state. But there were a handful of people who managed to escape all that due to dumb luck involved being surrounded by metal or something when the comet went by.
That, fortunately, is what happened to sisters Reggie (Catherine Mary Stuart) and Sam Belmont (Kelli Maroney). Reggie was, shall we say, enjoying a night with her projectionist boyfriend in the steel-lined projectionist’s booth. Sam spent the night in a shed at a lumber yard after a fight with her stepmother. Reggie’s boyfriend doesn’t last too long as a zombie homeless man kills him, but the sisters reunite and have to devise a next move. There still seems to be some signs of civilization. The power is still on. There could be other survivors. And the zombies aren’t exactly a swarm. Maybe they can find help. It does appear some scientists saw the whole thing coming and hid in a bunker. Maybe those guys are friendly…
OK, this was a weird one, not played all that straight. Reggie seems to be the smart one, seeing as how she figures out what’s up with all the dust-covered articles of clothing outside. Sam doesn’t get it right away, even tossing the disintegrated family dog’s leash around her neck as she wonders why all the neighborhood kids aren’t causing their usual level of noise. But anyone thinking this is going to be some deep psychological thing should think twice: this ain’t that kind of movie. The sisters spend more time arguing who can be with the one living man they find, and you can probably count the number of zombie people on the fingers of one hand. Heck, the girls even go shopping at one point because the mall is open, it’s almost Christmas, and there’s no competition to get anything over there. Besides, as with many zombie movies, the real danger is always the other survivors, and the movie has some nice twists involving a scientist played by cult actor Mary Woronov and whose side she’s actually on.
Really, this is just a movie to kinda enjoy and call it a day. The humor is more gentle than laugh-out-loud, though I came close when the girls were staying at an abandoned radio station and found the weather report for that day was pre-recorded. There’s not much in the way of exploitation though there is some…and I’m not sure why the sister who will strip down to her underwear for one scene would be the younger one Kelli since the character is supposed to be about 16. Not that the actress looks it or anything, but it did stick out a bit. It’s a fine enough movie, nothing to get too excited about, but the sort of thing that didn’t make for a bad middle-of-the-week viewing.
Grade: B-
0 Comments