Film

Night of the Comet

Name: Night of the Comet
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Science Fiction
Released: 1984
Cast: Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran, Kelli Maroney, Sharon Farrell, Mary Woronov

Post-apocalyptic

A 1984 sci-fi comedy where two Valley Girls wake after a comet to find Los Angeles emptied and filled with zombie threats. It's an affectionate, wry survival romp that treats its absurd premise with genuine charm rather than irony. Perfect for anyone who wants creature-feature thrills without pretension, and loves when humor and horror genuinely coexist.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like end-of-the-world stories that keep their nerve through jokes, the way a teen comedy keeps tipping into scares, and you don't mind the seams showing.

Skip it if you need a tight, consistent tone, since it lurches between teen banter, gore and gleeful 80s cheese and may feel scrappy.

What it asks of you: Expect a brisk ninety-five minutes with little patience for slow build-up; you mostly just go along with its sunny, low-budget energy and let the oddness wash over you.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Hidden1987

Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri hunt a parasitic alien through Los Angeles with the same irreverent buddy-cop chemistry that makes Night of the Comet tick. Grounded action, practical effects, genuine scares, and a wink-and-nudge tone that never undermines the stakes.

But The sexual violence content is nasty and frequent—not exploitative, but genuinely upsetting. It's also bloodier and far meaner-spirited than Night of the Comet's playfulness.

Lifeforce1985

Tobe Hooper's maximalist answer to the question Night of the Comet asks quietly: what if human bodies became weapons? A space vampire unleashes chaos on London. It's operatic, ridiculous, fearless, and absolutely committed to being both sexy and terrifying.

But The film is three hours of gratuitous nudity and it's genuinely unhinged. If you need restraint or prefer coherence, this will exhaust you quickly.

Suburban Commando1991

A muscle-bound alien hides in suburban America, and the fish-out-of-water comedy lands harder than you'd expect. It has Night of the Comet's spirit: treat the fantastic as mundane, and let character warmth carry the absurdity. Genuinely clever in its simplicity.

But It's a Hulk Hogan vehicle from the early 90s, and that baggage is real. The plot is tissue-thin and some jokes have aged badly. It coasts on charm alone.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Night of the Comet

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Lifespan1975

Both are low-budget sci-fi films from the 1970s-80s that treat cosmic catastrophe as backdrop for human connection rather than spectacle; both assume their audience can sit quietly with existential unease.

A young couple investigates immortality experiments in a decaying future Amsterdam. It's philosophical sci-fi disguised as a mystery, beautifully shot, unsettling in ways that linger. Terence Stamp and Hiram Keller carry the strangeness with absolute conviction. This is 1970s Europe at its most elegantly weird.

But It's glacially paced and actively hostile to plot momentum. The metaphysical dread won't satisfy anyone looking for conventional narrative or genre payoff. It's also nearly impossible to find.

Galaxy of Terror1981

A crew trapped on a dying planet faces nightmarish visions and practical creature effects that still hold up. The dread is real, but the movie never takes itself too seriously. That balance—horror that respects both scares and stupidity—is rare and earned here.

But The assault scene is brutal and treated with a confusion about whether it's exploitation or drama. The plot is a slow-burn crawl, and pacing feels slack in stretches.

Chopping Mall1986

Teenagers trapped in a shopping mall hunted by security-guard robots. It's exactly as much fun as that sounds: practical gore, genuine creativity with the setting, and a tone that's enthusiastic without being smug. Short, punchy, unapologetic.

But The acting is uneven and the setup takes forever to pay off. Once it does, some might find a shopping mall setting too silly to sustain genuine tension.

Tremors1990

Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward vs. giant underground worms in a Nevada town. It's adventure-comedy that never forgets it's also genuinely exciting. The creature design is iconic, the humor lands clean, and it respects its own world without winking at the audience.

But It's more action-adventure than horror, which might feel safer than you want. The relentless positivity and earnest heroism won't suit everyone.

They Live1988

John Carpenter's one-joke premise—aliens run consumer society and sunglasses reveal the truth—never wears out its welcome. Nada and Frank's chemistry is electric, the social satire is sharp, and it commits so fully to its absurdity that it loops back around to genuine meaning.

But The 6-minute fight scene is repetitive and exhausting by design. The dialogue is on-the-nose, and any subtlety in the satire was sacrificed for clarity.

Re-Animator1985

Herbert West brings the dead back wrong, and the horror-comedy that results is visceral, disgusting, and funnier than it has any right to be. Jeffrey Combs is a force of nature; the practical effects are transgressive; it swings wildly between revulsion and laughter.

But The sexual violence and grotesquerie are relentless and intended to disturb. If gore makes you queasy or you need characters to root for, this will turn you off entirely.

Cléo from 5 to 71962

Both films find their power in the ordinary response to extraordinary circumstance—not how people fight back, but how they move through the world once it's fundamentally changed. Both are small, character-driven, and trust that internal life matters more than external plot.

Agnès Varda's 92-minute real-time film: a woman waits for cancer test results and drifts through Paris, moving from vanity to genuine consciousness of her own insignificance. It's quietly revolutionary, wildly alive, and heartbreaking. Shot in black-and-white and color; a masterpiece of attention and empathy.

But Nothing happens. A woman walks around Paris thinking. There's no plot to hang onto, no action, no catharsis. If you need story machinery, this is emptiness disguised as cinema.