Movies

NIGHT OF THE COMET – Midnights This Weekend at The Hi-Pointe

By Tom Stockman | April 26, 2015

“The legal drinking age is now ten, but you will need I.D. . Let’s be real!”

NIGHT OF THE COMET screens midnights this Friday and Saturday Night (May 1st and 2nd) at The Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Ave, St. Louis) as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse

Imagine the horror of being stuck with 80s fashion, style, and music for the rest of your life: that’s the fate facing teenage sisters Regina and Samantha (Catherine Mary Stewart and blonde cutie Kelli Maroney) when civilization comes to a standstill after a passing comet turns most of the human race into orange dust in the 1984 cult-sci-fier NIGHT OF THE COMET.

Amazingly, Regina and Sam have survived desiccation thanks to the fact they were both surrounded by steel when the Earth passed through the comet’s tail, but that doesn’t mean that they are no longer in danger: those who were partially exposed to the cosmic rays are slowly disintegrating, becoming bloodthirsty zombies in the process.

Possibly inspired by 70s TV movie WHERE HAVE ALL THE PEOPLE GONE?, with which it shares a lot of similarities, director Thom Eberhardt’s enjoyable end of the world B-movie is a quirky, tongue-in-cheek effort that deliberately piles on the clichés, but also delivers some smart dialogue, solid performances from its great cast (including B-movie regular Mary Woronov, and the recently departed Geoffry Lewis), and even a decent shock or two. Special effects are limited to red and orange filters for the sky, and basic sunken-eye zombie make-up, but Eberhardt more than makes up for this with his spirited direction and some beautiful and very eerie shots of a completely deserted Los Angeles.

If you think you can stomach the overload of neon colors, big hair, and dreadful clothing that pervade the movie, then you could do a lot worse than to give NIGHT OF THE COMET a whirl. And you’ll have the chance this weekend (May 1^st and 2^nd) when it plays midnights at The Hi-Pointe Theater as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse midnight show. Admission is $7 – Beer & Wine is served until 12:45am