Night of the Comet (1984) on Netflix
PG-1319841h 35mComedyHorrorSci-Fi
A comet's tail sweeps Earth and turns most people to red dust. Sisters Reggie and Samantha, shielded by steel, wake to an empty southern California and look for other survivors.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.3/1027,430 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes79%
Trailer
Plot summary
Earth passes through the tail of a comet for the first time in 65 million years, an event that coincided with the extinction of the dinosaurs. On the night of its passage, eleven days before Christmas, crowds gather outside to watch. Regina, eighteen, works at a southern California movie theater and spends the night in its steel-lined projection booth with her boyfriend, Larry Dupree. Her sixteen-year-old sister Samantha argues with their stepmother, Doris, and sleeps in a steel backyard shed. Morning brings a red sky and no sign of life, only scattered mounds of red dust and abandoned clothing. The sisters conclude that the steel around them saved them. A disc jockey's voice on the radio leads them to a station, where they meet Hector Gomez, who spent the night in his steel truck.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Night of the Comet (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Night of the Comet grossed $14.4 million in the US on a $700,000 budget, received positive reviews and has since become a cult film, influencing the creation of the titular Buffy the Vampire Slayer character, Buffy Summers.
- Without telling the girls details about the script's premise, Eberhardt asked real teenagers to describe how they would react to an apocalyptic event. The girls saw the scenario as an exciting adventure and only saw a downside to the experience when he brought up the subject of dating.
- The producers, Andrew Lane and Wayne Crawford, clashed with Eberhardt during filming and early in the production attempted to have him replaced; Eberhardt would later say that they did not understand the film and resented being assigned to such a low-budget B movie.
- Eberhardt initially had trouble convincing the studio to let him direct it, but they relented when he held out, as Atlantic Releasing Corporation was looking to immediately invest $700,000 and wanted to capitalize on its 1983 hit Valley Girl and the popularity of quirky drive-in films like Repo Man.
- Heather Langenkamp auditioned for the role of Samantha "Sam" Belmont and was the number one choice on the casting list, but the part ultimately went to Kelli Maroney.
