January 21, 2025 • 22 mins
Grab your Uzis and Aqua Net and get ready for some post-apocalyptic 80s fun! This week on SlashBack Cinema, we're diving into Night of the Comet (1984), the cult classic that blends valley girls, zombies, and end-of-the-world mall adventures—because girls just wanna have fun!
#NightOfTheComet #FashionablyDead #horrorpodcast #genx #1980s #valleygirls #catherinemarystewart #ThomEberhardt #zombies #girlsjustwannahavefun
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shanny Luft (00:00):
Music. Welcome to slash back cinema. I'm Shanny
Ryan Dreimiller (00:07):
and I'm Ryan.
Shanny Luft (00:09):
We've been friends since the 80s, and our childhood
was built on comic books, videogames and horror movies. So
we've been wondering how thehorror movies of our childhood
stack up against movies today.
Ryan Dreimiller (00:19):
Now we're revisiting those classic
car films from the 1970s and80s, the ones that haunted us
throughout us and made usbelieve there was always
something lurking under our bed.
Do they still hold up? Or wereour kid brains just easier to
scare?
Shanny Luft (00:32):
So grab your flashlight, pull the covers
up tight and join us as we findout if these are classics still
slay or if they lost their bite.
This is slash back cinema.
That's right. What is today'snightmare fuel
Ryan Dreimiller (00:45):
today we're gonna watch night of the comet
from 1984 this was directed andwritten by Tom Ebert. Ebert
Ebert Hart, yeah, say this guy'sname. Wait, Ebert's the whole
name. Her heart. Art.
Shanny Luft (01:03):
We're off to such a good start, and
we've got them here on thepodcast. Ever heart Tom, tell us
by yourself.
Ryan Dreimiller (01:11):
First off, gentlemen, you've butchered my
name. Yeah? Tom, Eberhard, hisname, yeah.
Shanny Luft (01:16):
So very quickly, I feel like this
is a perfect, easy to summarizemovie in like a sentence or two.
What is Night of the cometabout?
Ryan Dreimiller (01:23):
So we've got a pair of sisters, and they're
basically these Valley girls outin California. They wake up and
find themselves the solesurvivor of an apocalyptic
event. A comet had come acrossthe sky, and apparently, if
you're outside, you got wipedout. And so they find themselves
fighting for survival againstnot only the remaining zombie
(01:43):
humans and these medicalresearchers who are trying to
harvest them. Do you rememberseeing this movie? No, I never
saw this movie. I saw it in thevideo stores. It definitely
seems to have a fan base, andthere's love for this one is
drenched in the 1980s
Shanny Luft (02:00):
boy, I got a kick out of this movie. Yes, I got
the costumes the hair. Everyfemale character had hair that
was a good like, six inches,eight inches off of their skull.
They were all like giant, giant,early 80s. A lot of aqua net and
then shoulder pads. This moviesmells like 1984 right? By the
way, 1984 is quite a year formovies. It might have been like
the best year of movies of alltime. Ghostbusters came out in
(02:21):
84 Beverly Hills, cop theTerminator came out two weeks
either before or after night ofthe comet Nightmare on Elm
Street. Gremlins, the KarateKid, Indiana Jones, the Temple
of Doom, spinal tap, policeacademy, Revenge of the Nerds,
Footloose, 16 Candles,unbelievable. How many great
movies? There's a reasonableargument that it's the greatest
(02:42):
year for movies ever, and nightof the comet is right in there.
It checks all our boxes becauseit's a hard movie from the 80s.
Super cheap budget. It was like$700,000 and then it grossed 14
point 4 million. So prettysuccessful. I do have a memory
of this movie, and so it musthave seen it on VHS, but there
was only exactly one scene thatI remembered. It's fun, so let
(03:03):
me just remind people that I was13 years old, 1985 when I
probably saw this on VHS. It wasthe sex scene. It was now, and
it's a very chase scene, butit's at the very beginning where
the projector room, yes, okay, Ididn't even know what movie I
had seen that had that scene init. Reggie sleeps with a film
(03:24):
projectionist in the projectionbooth, and they had this
conversation about how he says,Superman can't even see here
because there's steel walls. Andthen Reggie says to him, he can
see through steel. He can't seethrough lead. I have remembered
that line, if that movie came in84 what is that 40 years ago?
And I remember that scene, youdon't see any nudity at all. You
(03:46):
just see them under like ablanket. Yeah, right. And that
was the entire scene I rememberfrom That's it. That's all I
remembered from this entiremovie. But seeing it again, it
is really funny to go to watch ascene. I do other people have
this where there's something intheir head they remember, but
they have no idea what thecontext was. They have no idea
why they remember that.
Ryan Dreimiller (04:07):
It like clicks and you're like, oh
my god, wow. Memory reactivated,
Shanny Luft (04:11):
and I even remember where I saw it was Mark's house.
Yes, I saw it in Mark'sbasement. He had this movie on
VHS and showed it to me. And Ishould reach out to him on
Facebook. We're going to talkabout in this episode, because I
I'm really curious if heremembers this movie. So I was
delighted to watch this movieagain, because clearly, a part
of it is embedded permanently inmy memory without any context.
(04:35):
Wow, it's got this, like, cheesyopening. It's almost like a
1950s horror movie, a narratordescribing this comet passing
through earth since
Movie clip (04:43):
before recorded time it had swung through the
universe in an elliptical orbitso large that its very existence
remained a secret of time andspace. But now, in the last few
years of the 20th. Century, thevisitor was returned,
Shanny Luft (05:03):
and then the skies are red, and then
everybody is just turned intored powder. And then you get the
idea that it's just these lasttwo girls realize they're alive.
And the younger sister, Sam,she's alive because she spent
the night sleeping in a what was
Ryan Dreimiller (05:15):
a shed or something?
it
Shanny Luft (05:17):
She ran away from home and slept in a shed, and
that
Ryan Dreimiller (05:19):
mom punched her out, and then she ran away. Or
stepmom,
Shanny Luft (05:22):
would that be? Like everyone who was in a car was
also, I guess, cars havewindows, so maybe the window,
Ryan Dreimiller (05:27):
well, that's how Hector had survived.
He was in the driving in thatcar, so he slept in the car, or
in his truck.
Shanny Luft (05:33):
Guess, in the context of the movie, if you got
fully exposed to the the rays ofthe comet, you just immediately
vaporized. But if you'repartially exposed, you're slowly
disintegrating. And some of myfavorite moments for the movie
was when people had sunglasseson, yeah, and they would take
their sunglasses on, it off, andtheir and their eyes were sunken
in, and you knew that the zombiedisease was was happening.
Ryan Dreimiller (05:55):
I thought that was cool, too. And then you
could see like they wereprogressing. And people would
take them off and see thesunken, milky zombie eyes. Yeah,
that was cool. Way less zombiesthan I was hoping for in this
movie.
Shanny Luft (06:07):
Yeah.
I mean, probably, like, you cancount all the zombies on one
hand.
Ryan Dreimiller (06:10):
We were talking about the
80s. It was really oozing. In1980s they had a good feature
and highlight of the tempestarcade game, which, yeah, San
Juan is, like, quintessential80s, with the knob and the
vector classic that she's tryingto get the high score and gets
pissed off because someone hastaken one of her slots. DMK, and
when you did the high score, itonly had room for your initials,
(06:32):
right? So you just entered. Younever quite knew who. Yes,
longing it was. DMK, right? DMK,it also had a mention of the
Sandinistas, the Uzis, thesoundtrack. And then, you know,
I think we had two scenes ofsomebody driving drunk, which
apparently is a big thing, andit showed up in pumpkin head
too. So, yeah, good lord, the80s loose morals.
Shanny Luft (06:55):
The main character, Reggie, in the
very last scene, she is wearingan outfit that has shoulder pads
that would go perfectly outstraight and then cut into a V
but it's also a very long,conservative dress. It looks
like a space Quaker. It is, itis. It is both highly
conservative, you see no skin,but also it looks like something
out of the future. It's such acrazy outfit. What do you got
(07:18):
for favorite scenes for thisone, every zombie movie needs to
have a good scene where peopleare enjoying the fact that
there's no one else in theworld. And in this one, like a
lot of zombie movies, they go toa mall and they feel like
they're the only people there sothey can put on whatever clothes
they want. They're trying on abunch of makeup. All the shoes
are theirs. I feel like that islike a very substantial part of
the fascination and love ofzombies is like the streets will
(07:41):
be cleared so you suddenly don'thave to worry about cars. It
doesn't exactly make sense,because there's like no cars in
this movie at all. Every streetis completely blank. But if the
people disappeared, the carswouldn't have disappeared. But
right, screw it's like theevidence of humanity has just
disappeared, except for likefive people. And I gotta say, I
think my favorite scene actuallytakes place in that mall,
(08:02):
because while the girls are kindof like relaxing and enjoying
life, this gang of guys show up,and I thought they were
generally scary and intense, andyou don't realize at first that
they're transforming, you justthink they're like, just a gang
of psychos. Yeah, I wasgenerally concerned that these
women were going to be assaultedthe guys all took their Uzis, or
whatever that gun was, and sothey fight back. One of them
(08:26):
gets a gun and she startsshooting at the guys. The other
one has shoes that she'sthrowing at them. All right,
little goofy, but part of what Iliked about this whole movie is
it's got two female leads, andthey are clearly the heroes of
the film King's mass. When guysattack them, they kick him in
the nuts, they punch him in theface, they smack him with a
(08:47):
tray. The 80s is the periodwhere the action heroes were
Arnold Schwarzenegger andSylvester Stallone. There were
not a lot of movies with femaleaction heroes. The 80s is when
movies like Mr. Mom came out,where the hilarious conceit of
the movie is, guy stays home andraises kids while the wife
works.
Ryan Dreimiller (09:08):
How wacky!
Shanny Luft (09:09):
yes. So in that context, the idea of like,
female heroes,
Ryan Dreimiller (09:15):
they were great,
Shanny Luft (09:15):
yeah.
Ryan Dreimiller (09:16):
Well, Princess Leia was a strong female
character. That's what sheneeded to be rescued, but she
still could kick some ass. So,yeah, that's appreciated. Some
of those movies changing thenarrative there. Yeah, good host
movie in particular, bring,bringing the two sisters to the
front as leads, and yeah, theytook no crap from the zombies or
the medical researchers. Wasyour favorite. That was a great
scene. I also love the openingshot to that whole mall scene
(09:39):
where they on the shoppingspree. Is they, she walks up and
she puts the Uzi, probablycalled the gun, the wrong thing,
but she puts the Uzi down on theshoe rack display. And they,
like, just kind of hold thecamera there. It's all the shoes
and the easy laying on thecounter. Romero did this too
with this. I forget which onewas it Dawn of the Dead, which
was in the shopping mall? Sortof this consumerism zombie. And,
(10:00):
you know, showing up again inanother apocalyptic zombie
movie. My second favorite was,what sand the younger sister
they'd been in that very 80sradio station, and they cut to
her out driving and drinkingthis Porsche, and she fly down
the road, and then you see thetwo cops come the lights come
on. And she's like, Oh my God,where were you before? And she
(10:23):
said she passed over and, and,well, they were not cops, they
were zombies, yeah, like, funnyand just unexpected.
Shanny Luft (10:34):
I feel like the movie
underdeveloped the evilscientists.
Ryan Dreimiller (10:38):
Yeah, it was a little fuzzy.
Shanny Luft (10:40):
The movie seemed to rely on the idea that, like, you
know, evil scientists, right? Soif they just show a bunch of
scientists working in rooms withalmost no lighting, so that
there's just shadows everywhere,and they're all wearing like
jumpers,
Ryan Dreimiller (10:55):
well, it's like a bad belt. It looked
like it, they cut it off of likea army duffel bag and just tied
it another way. It's a littlelow budget in the whole research
facility and scientists,
Shanny Luft (11:04):
I felt like, yeah, the movie was like
stretching its budget when itneeded to get to a science
facility for $700,000 This movielooks like, it cost, I don't
know, two, $3 million it doesn'tlook like garbage. I mean, the
problem is, it came out in 84and as I said, two weeks from
the Terminator, which is likemind blowing special effects for
the time. This movie can't dothat, but it doesn't look cheap.
Ryan Dreimiller (11:31):
Well, I really enjoyed that all the stuff that
they were shooting outside inLA, like, Yeah, cool. Kind of
like, post apocalyptic, veryheavy red, uh, lens on stuff,
yeah, and desolate streets andshot in the city like it
definitely had a good look andfeel to it. I think where it
started falling.
Shanny Luft (11:49):
They said, wait before you say that, yeah,
can we just talk about that fora moment? Because that was
probably my other favoritething. Is those shots of LA with
no cards, totally desolate. Didyou read about how they managed
to get that shot? No, theyfilmed on Christmas Day. So it's
like, super clever, right? Yougot, you got no money to make a
movie pick the one day a yearwhere no one is driving the
morning of Christmas, and you'vegot the streets to yourself. And
(12:11):
so the characters are literallylike, dancing around in the
streets, then there's no carscoming. And I just thought they,
they managed to make the mostout of zero budget. But you were
going to talk about where yousee the lack of budget in the
movie, into how it looks cheap,a ton,
Ryan Dreimiller (12:27):
Well, I think that the research lab
that's from the budget, like wetalked about before, kind of
felt like it was coming to theforefront. It looked like they
had slapped decals on something,they had pulled the janitors
costumes out. The researchfacility. Didn't look very
researchy, you know. So yeah,
Shanny Luft (12:42):
they had, they had one 286 PC. That's a deep cut
with the 286 processor. Whydon't you reach out to the
podcast if you know what thehell a 286 processor is.
Ryan Dreimiller (12:52):
But apparently they have plenty
of money because they at theresearch facility, because they
did roll in and save the girlswith the Uzis. Also circling
back on the Christmas thing,like, this was another one that
I I was kind of surprised itwasn't like heavy I wouldn't
feel this a Christmas movie, butit did show up that this was
happening around Christmas withthe lights. And then right
Hector, apparently master ofdisguise, he shows up in Santa
(13:16):
Claus at one point to meet upwith the girls again later in
the movie, he shows up in thisreally cool, I don't know, 30s,
40s, car. Inexplicably, he'sdressed as a cowboy, talking
like a cowboy to apparently pullthe guard.
Shanny Luft (13:31):
The guard doesn't know Hector, so
why he's dressing in costumesand changing his voice does not
seem necessary.
Ryan Dreimiller (13:38):
And then he's like, Hey, guard, come
out here and take a look at whatI've got to show you. And of
course, the guard just is like,sure, yeah, comes over and, and
he's like, you like, girls andwhat's up the truck and sisters
in the truck? Yeah, it's kind oflike there was no red flags for
the guard. This guy very sloppyguarding.
Shanny Luft (13:57):
Yeah,
Movie clip (13:58):
look in here. Gee.
Ain't dead. See this lady shother up with sodium Pentathlon to
make this fella think she wasdead, so you wouldn't suck your
blood out, you asshole.
Shanny Luft (14:14):
Good for Reggie and Sam, kicking ass, killing
zombies. They completely destroythat scientific facility with
Ryan Dreimiller (14:19):
dynamite. Yeah, very prolific in the 80s movies.
We saw that um in the thing. Andhere's Hector with his bundles
of dynamite, which is, I couldget it the Five and Dime. In the
tradition of many great 80smovies, a lot of really good one
liners.
Shanny Luft (14:34):
Yeah, yes, it was funny. It was really funny.
Ryan Dreimiller (14:37):
Did you take any down?
Shanny Luft (14:39):
Oh, good question.
I don't know. I didn't write anydown, but I was laughing all the
way through.
Ryan Dreimiller (14:43):
Yeah, I've got two it stood out to me.
One was when Sam's character wastalking to the stepmom at the
beginning of the film, beforethe apocalypse or the combat
shows up, she says to herstepmother,
Movie clip (14:55):
Chuck's a nice guy. He's certainly nice
to be with while daddy's down abanana. And you were born with
an asshole Doris. You don't needChuck.
Ryan Dreimiller (15:03):
But at the end of the movie, the best one was
when Regina was talking to Sam,and they were at that traffic
light, and they were pretendingto be this kind of proper
family, as Regina and Hector,and then the two kids they had
saved, they were all dressed up.
She's taking family photos. It'slike a church. It's like such a
church, yeah. And then Sam's onthe other side of the street,
and she said, come on. Andthey're like, What? What are you
(15:24):
doing? And they refused to crossbecause the light says, you know
it's not to cross. And ofcourse, the streets are
deserted, and Regina says, youmight as well face the facts.
Samantha, the whole burden ofcivilization has fallen upon us.
Sam goes across the street, thiscar comes ripping down, and then
it's this guy. She hops in thecar with him, and she repeats
(15:45):
that line, the burden ofcivilization is on us. And the
guy says,
Movie clip (15:51):
Oh yeah, Bitchin, isn't it?
Shanny Luft (15:55):
Yes, yes. Okay, so my favorite moment takes place
10 seconds after that, when Sam,the younger sister, asks the
guy's name, and he says, DannyMason Keener, and that name does
not mean anything at all in themovie. But then, when he pulls
away, the camera is on thelicense plate. The license plate
says, DMK. I was like so out ofthis movie for paying off a joke
(16:16):
from 90 minutes earlier, DMK isthe initials on the video game
machine, and Reggie is pissedoff that somebody other than her
has got the high score thatimpressed me. That is like the
movie is punching above its paygrade.
Ryan Dreimiller (16:30):
Yes, that was, I was thinking about
that the whole movie. I waslike, who's DMK, right? Because
they, they really spent a lot oftime on the tempest game, the
interaction with the manager,and then she goes back later,
resets the scoreboard, and sheknocks DMK off the top 10, and
they pay it off at the end,which is,
Shanny Luft (16:48):
yeah, that's pretty smart. I mean,
that's like, that's like somewriting that, like they put some
care into this. It feels likethe writers actually cared about
their story, and they knew howto tell a good story. What
surprised me about this movie isthis movie should have been, I
feel like a calling card forthis director. I wonder if
Eberhard had been given a biggerbudget, what he could have done.
But he doesn't end up having ahuge career after that. He works
(17:09):
on, honey, I blew up the kidslike the second or third, honey.
I Shrunk the Kids Movies. It'slike he has a couple of other
movies in the 80s. He's got,like, a decent looking IMDb
credits, but he doesn't become adirector that ever has, like, a
huge hit or anything. And nightof the comments seems like a
good enough movie that I feltlike, wow, he should have gotten
something more out of that. Heshould have gotten a chance to
(17:29):
do a big Hollywood movie.
Ryan Dreimiller (17:32):
I was looking at his film list,
and did you click on the nightbefore? So that was the movie he
did, right after night of thecomments. So apparently, you
know, the night was his jamthere for a little bit. It's got
Keanu Reeves in it. It is awacky ass preview. I've never
heard it or seen it. Doesn't fitinto this podcast, but Right,
that's like a comedy. Oh yeah,I'm gonna watch that one, but
you're right. His credentials,he wound up doing a bunch of
(17:56):
other films, but nothing thatwas really breakthrough or
blockbuster.
Shanny Luft (18:02):
He also did this kind of romantic comedy
called gross anatomy. And I doremember this
Ryan Dreimiller (18:06):
that was popular,
Shanny Luft (18:07):
but it was with Matthew Modine, and it was about
like first year medical school,but look at the Wikipedia page
says the movie cost to make 8.5million, and it made 11 million
night of the comet is his hugebreak. He makes this movie that
just has a audience for the last40 years that has loved that
movie. And I'm just fascinatedabout the fact, like, I feel
(18:27):
like this guy had a couple ofother swings at the bat Tom
Eberhard, but nothing reallyquite ever hit or worked out.
Right? I don't know. Night ofthe Comet I thought was a good
enough movie that it should havegotten him a little more so,
right? Let's pour one out
Ryan Dreimiller (18:40):
when I was watching this movie, it
clearly has a lot of, like, 80ssoundtrack going on.
Shanny Luft (18:46):
Yeah,
Ryan Dreimiller (18:46):
it was weird that, like, none of the songs I
knew, like, Oh, really, wherethey were, like, 80 songs. And
then they got to that mall scenewhere they've gone on the
shopping spree, or they'retrying everything, and then they
play Girls Just Want to Have Funby Cyndi Lauper, yes, and they
come down, they're doing steps,but if you listen to it, it
isn't Cyndi Lauper singing thatsong. It's like, this weird
(19:10):
knock off song. And to me, I waslike, when I was listening to I
was like, What? What? What'sgoing on? It was like, Why is
everything weird with the musicin this movie? And then later I
was reading that it was likeTammy Holbrook or whatever, who
was a backup singer for CyndiLauper. Yeah, yeah, just the
cover, which, maybe that's justbecause of the budget, but just
(19:33):
that just stuck out to me asstrange that they would have,
because that is the perfect songfor that scene, right? But the
fact that it wasn't Cyndi Lauperwas weird.
Shanny Luft (19:42):
Well, they just couldn't afford it. Yeah.
(20:02):
All the songs did have a very80s kind of sound. But people
have affection, not only for themovie, but for the soundtrack.
You can right now go on Spotifyand listen to the night of the
COVID soundtrack.
Ryan Dreimiller (20:12):
Let's do stabby scores. And since I went first
on hell raiser, you're up.
Shanny, what do you got
Shanny Luft (20:17):
that's always the tricky thing about these
stabby scores is I feel likeit's impossible to separate my
assessment of the movie from myaffection for the 1980s that
time period, the clothes, thehair. I love the fact that these
are like two female heroes. Ithought the movie was genuinely
funny. You might need to sitdown for this. I'm going four
stabbies. It does have a problemwith there's not enough
(20:41):
monsters, but I like thecharacters. I like the writing
and I like the plot.
Ryan Dreimiller (20:46):
I agree. Super fun movie. I love
the two sisters. It's wellacted. Hector's fun. I wanted to
see some more zombies in thismovie. It was really fun when
the cop zombie showed up, rightwith more zombies, my rating
would have been a little higher.
I'm gonna bring this one in at astabby rating of three.
Shanny Luft (21:06):
I think that's very fair. And when
that scene I keep talking aboutwhere Reggie is sleeping with
this guy in the movie a booth,he goes outside and then
immediately gets like, hit thehead and killed, like, in Act
One. And that seems to bepromising a lot more zombie
action than the guy, actually.
Ryan Dreimiller (21:21):
Yeah,
Shanny Luft (21:21):
he's off.
Ryan Dreimiller (21:22):
You're like, here we go. And then you'll,
Shanny Luft (21:23):
yeah,
Ryan Dreimiller (21:24):
there's not many more zombies after it. It's
like dream zombies. And then yousee one of the bad dudes in the
mall, and then one of theresearchers start to turn to a
zombie. But it's pretty light onzombies. So if you're looking
for heavy horror, this isn'tyour jam. But if you're looking
for something light, fun,enjoyable, very 80s like that
was really fun to just feel likeyou'd kind of stepped back into
(21:47):
time. Yeah, and I love thatyou've got a piece of this movie
burned into your brain for allthose years that got unlocked
with this watching that's
Shanny Luft (21:55):
Oh man.
It felt like it solved thepuzzle that has been unsolvable
for 40 years.
Ryan Dreimiller (22:00):
Well, hopefully it wasn't, though, my
configuration you haven't openeda portal to the cenobites coming
in and taking you away. So I'llbe here for the next episode.
Shanny Luft (22:08):
Yeah, I guess listeners will have to
tune in and see. All right.
Thank you for listening to slashback cinema. Hope you enjoyed
our conversation about night ofthe comet. If you're interested,
we would love to have you joinus on social media and tell us
what you thought of this movie,or come on and make
recommendations for othermovies. Ryan, where can people
reach us?
Ryan Dreimiller (22:27):
Slash back Cinema.com We're also on socials
at Insta and tick tock. You canalso send us a note directly in
the podcast description,
Shanny Luft (22:35):
and if you want to get some slash back merch, Ryan
has done awesome, inspiringwork.
Ryan Dreimiller (22:39):
You're gonna love it, Slashbackcinema.com,
the links at the top, greatgifts for loved ones or just
yourself you know, might helpyou get through the impending
zombie apocalypse. So well nexttime, thanks for joining.
Music. Welcome to slash back cinema. I'm Shanny
Ryan Dreimiller (00:07):
and I'm Ryan.
Shanny Luft (00:09):
We've been friends since the 80s, and our childhood
was built on comic books, videogames and horror movies. So
we've been wondering how thehorror movies of our childhood
stack up against movies today.
Ryan Dreimiller (00:19):
Now we're revisiting those classic
car films from the 1970s and80s, the ones that haunted us
throughout us and made usbelieve there was always
something lurking under our bed.
Do they still hold up? Or wereour kid brains just easier to
scare?
Shanny Luft (00:32):
So grab your flashlight, pull the covers
up tight and join us as we findout if these are classics still
slay or if they lost their bite.
This is slash back cinema.
That's right. What is today'snightmare fuel
Ryan Dreimiller (00:45):
today we're gonna watch night of the comet
from 1984 this was directed andwritten by Tom Ebert. Ebert
Ebert Hart, yeah, say this guy'sname. Wait, Ebert's the whole
name. Her heart. Art.
Shanny Luft (01:03):
We're off to such a good start, and
we've got them here on thepodcast. Ever heart Tom, tell us
by yourself.
Ryan Dreimiller (01:11):
First off, gentlemen, you've butchered my
name. Yeah? Tom, Eberhard, hisname, yeah.
Shanny Luft (01:16):
So very quickly, I feel like this
is a perfect, easy to summarizemovie in like a sentence or two.
What is Night of the cometabout?
Ryan Dreimiller (01:23):
So we've got a pair of sisters, and they're
basically these Valley girls outin California. They wake up and
find themselves the solesurvivor of an apocalyptic
event. A comet had come acrossthe sky, and apparently, if
you're outside, you got wipedout. And so they find themselves
fighting for survival againstnot only the remaining zombie
(01:43):
humans and these medicalresearchers who are trying to
harvest them. Do you rememberseeing this movie? No, I never
saw this movie. I saw it in thevideo stores. It definitely
seems to have a fan base, andthere's love for this one is
drenched in the 1980s
Shanny Luft (02:00):
boy, I got a kick out of this movie. Yes, I got
the costumes the hair. Everyfemale character had hair that
was a good like, six inches,eight inches off of their skull.
They were all like giant, giant,early 80s. A lot of aqua net and
then shoulder pads. This moviesmells like 1984 right? By the
way, 1984 is quite a year formovies. It might have been like
the best year of movies of alltime. Ghostbusters came out in
(02:21):
84 Beverly Hills, cop theTerminator came out two weeks
either before or after night ofthe comet Nightmare on Elm
Street. Gremlins, the KarateKid, Indiana Jones, the Temple
of Doom, spinal tap, policeacademy, Revenge of the Nerds,
Footloose, 16 Candles,unbelievable. How many great
movies? There's a reasonableargument that it's the greatest
(02:42):
year for movies ever, and nightof the comet is right in there.
It checks all our boxes becauseit's a hard movie from the 80s.
Super cheap budget. It was like$700,000 and then it grossed 14
point 4 million. So prettysuccessful. I do have a memory
of this movie, and so it musthave seen it on VHS, but there
was only exactly one scene thatI remembered. It's fun, so let
(03:03):
me just remind people that I was13 years old, 1985 when I
probably saw this on VHS. It wasthe sex scene. It was now, and
it's a very chase scene, butit's at the very beginning where
the projector room, yes, okay, Ididn't even know what movie I
had seen that had that scene init. Reggie sleeps with a film
(03:24):
projectionist in the projectionbooth, and they had this
conversation about how he says,Superman can't even see here
because there's steel walls. Andthen Reggie says to him, he can
see through steel. He can't seethrough lead. I have remembered
that line, if that movie came in84 what is that 40 years ago?
And I remember that scene, youdon't see any nudity at all. You
(03:46):
just see them under like ablanket. Yeah, right. And that
was the entire scene I rememberfrom That's it. That's all I
remembered from this entiremovie. But seeing it again, it
is really funny to go to watch ascene. I do other people have
this where there's something intheir head they remember, but
they have no idea what thecontext was. They have no idea
why they remember that.
Ryan Dreimiller (04:07):
It like clicks and you're like, oh
my god, wow. Memory reactivated,
Shanny Luft (04:11):
and I even remember where I saw it was Mark's house.
Yes, I saw it in Mark'sbasement. He had this movie on
VHS and showed it to me. And Ishould reach out to him on
Facebook. We're going to talkabout in this episode, because I
I'm really curious if heremembers this movie. So I was
delighted to watch this movieagain, because clearly, a part
of it is embedded permanently inmy memory without any context.
(04:35):
Wow, it's got this, like, cheesyopening. It's almost like a
1950s horror movie, a narratordescribing this comet passing
through earth since
Movie clip (04:43):
before recorded time it had swung through the
universe in an elliptical orbitso large that its very existence
remained a secret of time andspace. But now, in the last few
years of the 20th. Century, thevisitor was returned,
Shanny Luft (05:03):
and then the skies are red, and then
everybody is just turned intored powder. And then you get the
idea that it's just these lasttwo girls realize they're alive.
And the younger sister, Sam,she's alive because she spent
the night sleeping in a what was
Ryan Dreimiller (05:15):
a shed or something?
it
Shanny Luft (05:17):
She ran away from home and slept in a shed, and
that
Ryan Dreimiller (05:19):
mom punched her out, and then she ran away. Or
stepmom,
Shanny Luft (05:22):
would that be? Like everyone who was in a car was
also, I guess, cars havewindows, so maybe the window,
Ryan Dreimiller (05:27):
well, that's how Hector had survived.
He was in the driving in thatcar, so he slept in the car, or
in his truck.
Shanny Luft (05:33):
Guess, in the context of the movie, if you got
fully exposed to the the rays ofthe comet, you just immediately
vaporized. But if you'repartially exposed, you're slowly
disintegrating. And some of myfavorite moments for the movie
was when people had sunglasseson, yeah, and they would take
their sunglasses on, it off, andtheir and their eyes were sunken
in, and you knew that the zombiedisease was was happening.
Ryan Dreimiller (05:55):
I thought that was cool, too. And then you
could see like they wereprogressing. And people would
take them off and see thesunken, milky zombie eyes. Yeah,
that was cool. Way less zombiesthan I was hoping for in this
movie.
Shanny Luft (06:07):
Yeah.
I mean, probably, like, you cancount all the zombies on one
hand.
Ryan Dreimiller (06:10):
We were talking about the
80s. It was really oozing. In1980s they had a good feature
and highlight of the tempestarcade game, which, yeah, San
Juan is, like, quintessential80s, with the knob and the
vector classic that she's tryingto get the high score and gets
pissed off because someone hastaken one of her slots. DMK, and
when you did the high score, itonly had room for your initials,
(06:32):
right? So you just entered. Younever quite knew who. Yes,
longing it was. DMK, right? DMK,it also had a mention of the
Sandinistas, the Uzis, thesoundtrack. And then, you know,
I think we had two scenes ofsomebody driving drunk, which
apparently is a big thing, andit showed up in pumpkin head
too. So, yeah, good lord, the80s loose morals.
Shanny Luft (06:55):
The main character, Reggie, in the
very last scene, she is wearingan outfit that has shoulder pads
that would go perfectly outstraight and then cut into a V
but it's also a very long,conservative dress. It looks
like a space Quaker. It is, itis. It is both highly
conservative, you see no skin,but also it looks like something
out of the future. It's such acrazy outfit. What do you got
(07:18):
for favorite scenes for thisone, every zombie movie needs to
have a good scene where peopleare enjoying the fact that
there's no one else in theworld. And in this one, like a
lot of zombie movies, they go toa mall and they feel like
they're the only people there sothey can put on whatever clothes
they want. They're trying on abunch of makeup. All the shoes
are theirs. I feel like that islike a very substantial part of
the fascination and love ofzombies is like the streets will
(07:41):
be cleared so you suddenly don'thave to worry about cars. It
doesn't exactly make sense,because there's like no cars in
this movie at all. Every streetis completely blank. But if the
people disappeared, the carswouldn't have disappeared. But
right, screw it's like theevidence of humanity has just
disappeared, except for likefive people. And I gotta say, I
think my favorite scene actuallytakes place in that mall,
(08:02):
because while the girls are kindof like relaxing and enjoying
life, this gang of guys show up,and I thought they were
generally scary and intense, andyou don't realize at first that
they're transforming, you justthink they're like, just a gang
of psychos. Yeah, I wasgenerally concerned that these
women were going to be assaultedthe guys all took their Uzis, or
whatever that gun was, and sothey fight back. One of them
(08:26):
gets a gun and she startsshooting at the guys. The other
one has shoes that she'sthrowing at them. All right,
little goofy, but part of what Iliked about this whole movie is
it's got two female leads, andthey are clearly the heroes of
the film King's mass. When guysattack them, they kick him in
the nuts, they punch him in theface, they smack him with a
(08:47):
tray. The 80s is the periodwhere the action heroes were
Arnold Schwarzenegger andSylvester Stallone. There were
not a lot of movies with femaleaction heroes. The 80s is when
movies like Mr. Mom came out,where the hilarious conceit of
the movie is, guy stays home andraises kids while the wife
works.
Ryan Dreimiller (09:08):
How wacky!
Shanny Luft (09:09):
yes. So in that context, the idea of like,
female heroes,
Ryan Dreimiller (09:15):
they were great,
Shanny Luft (09:15):
yeah.
Ryan Dreimiller (09:16):
Well, Princess Leia was a strong female
character. That's what sheneeded to be rescued, but she
still could kick some ass. So,yeah, that's appreciated. Some
of those movies changing thenarrative there. Yeah, good host
movie in particular, bring,bringing the two sisters to the
front as leads, and yeah, theytook no crap from the zombies or
the medical researchers. Wasyour favorite. That was a great
scene. I also love the openingshot to that whole mall scene
(09:39):
where they on the shoppingspree. Is they, she walks up and
she puts the Uzi, probablycalled the gun, the wrong thing,
but she puts the Uzi down on theshoe rack display. And they,
like, just kind of hold thecamera there. It's all the shoes
and the easy laying on thecounter. Romero did this too
with this. I forget which onewas it Dawn of the Dead, which
was in the shopping mall? Sortof this consumerism zombie. And,
(10:00):
you know, showing up again inanother apocalyptic zombie
movie. My second favorite was,what sand the younger sister
they'd been in that very 80sradio station, and they cut to
her out driving and drinkingthis Porsche, and she fly down
the road, and then you see thetwo cops come the lights come
on. And she's like, Oh my God,where were you before? And she
(10:23):
said she passed over and, and,well, they were not cops, they
were zombies, yeah, like, funnyand just unexpected.
Shanny Luft (10:34):
I feel like the movie
underdeveloped the evilscientists.
Ryan Dreimiller (10:38):
Yeah, it was a little fuzzy.
Shanny Luft (10:40):
The movie seemed to rely on the idea that, like, you
know, evil scientists, right? Soif they just show a bunch of
scientists working in rooms withalmost no lighting, so that
there's just shadows everywhere,and they're all wearing like
jumpers,
Ryan Dreimiller (10:55):
well, it's like a bad belt. It looked
like it, they cut it off of likea army duffel bag and just tied
it another way. It's a littlelow budget in the whole research
facility and scientists,
Shanny Luft (11:04):
I felt like, yeah, the movie was like
stretching its budget when itneeded to get to a science
facility for $700,000 This movielooks like, it cost, I don't
know, two, $3 million it doesn'tlook like garbage. I mean, the
problem is, it came out in 84and as I said, two weeks from
the Terminator, which is likemind blowing special effects for
the time. This movie can't dothat, but it doesn't look cheap.
Ryan Dreimiller (11:31):
Well, I really enjoyed that all the stuff that
they were shooting outside inLA, like, Yeah, cool. Kind of
like, post apocalyptic, veryheavy red, uh, lens on stuff,
yeah, and desolate streets andshot in the city like it
definitely had a good look andfeel to it. I think where it
started falling.
Shanny Luft (11:49):
They said, wait before you say that, yeah,
can we just talk about that fora moment? Because that was
probably my other favoritething. Is those shots of LA with
no cards, totally desolate. Didyou read about how they managed
to get that shot? No, theyfilmed on Christmas Day. So it's
like, super clever, right? Yougot, you got no money to make a
movie pick the one day a yearwhere no one is driving the
morning of Christmas, and you'vegot the streets to yourself. And
(12:11):
so the characters are literallylike, dancing around in the
streets, then there's no carscoming. And I just thought they,
they managed to make the mostout of zero budget. But you were
going to talk about where yousee the lack of budget in the
movie, into how it looks cheap,a ton,
Ryan Dreimiller (12:27):
Well, I think that the research lab
that's from the budget, like wetalked about before, kind of
felt like it was coming to theforefront. It looked like they
had slapped decals on something,they had pulled the janitors
costumes out. The researchfacility. Didn't look very
researchy, you know. So yeah,
Shanny Luft (12:42):
they had, they had one 286 PC. That's a deep cut
with the 286 processor. Whydon't you reach out to the
podcast if you know what thehell a 286 processor is.
Ryan Dreimiller (12:52):
But apparently they have plenty
of money because they at theresearch facility, because they
did roll in and save the girlswith the Uzis. Also circling
back on the Christmas thing,like, this was another one that
I I was kind of surprised itwasn't like heavy I wouldn't
feel this a Christmas movie, butit did show up that this was
happening around Christmas withthe lights. And then right
Hector, apparently master ofdisguise, he shows up in Santa
(13:16):
Claus at one point to meet upwith the girls again later in
the movie, he shows up in thisreally cool, I don't know, 30s,
40s, car. Inexplicably, he'sdressed as a cowboy, talking
like a cowboy to apparently pullthe guard.
Shanny Luft (13:31):
The guard doesn't know Hector, so
why he's dressing in costumesand changing his voice does not
seem necessary.
Ryan Dreimiller (13:38):
And then he's like, Hey, guard, come
out here and take a look at whatI've got to show you. And of
course, the guard just is like,sure, yeah, comes over and, and
he's like, you like, girls andwhat's up the truck and sisters
in the truck? Yeah, it's kind oflike there was no red flags for
the guard. This guy very sloppyguarding.
Shanny Luft (13:57):
Yeah,
Movie clip (13:58):
look in here. Gee.
Ain't dead. See this lady shother up with sodium Pentathlon to
make this fella think she wasdead, so you wouldn't suck your
blood out, you asshole.
Shanny Luft (14:14):
Good for Reggie and Sam, kicking ass, killing
zombies. They completely destroythat scientific facility with
Ryan Dreimiller (14:19):
dynamite. Yeah, very prolific in the 80s movies.
We saw that um in the thing. Andhere's Hector with his bundles
of dynamite, which is, I couldget it the Five and Dime. In the
tradition of many great 80smovies, a lot of really good one
liners.
Shanny Luft (14:34):
Yeah, yes, it was funny. It was really funny.
Ryan Dreimiller (14:37):
Did you take any down?
Shanny Luft (14:39):
Oh, good question.
I don't know. I didn't write anydown, but I was laughing all the
way through.
Ryan Dreimiller (14:43):
Yeah, I've got two it stood out to me.
One was when Sam's character wastalking to the stepmom at the
beginning of the film, beforethe apocalypse or the combat
shows up, she says to herstepmother,
Movie clip (14:55):
Chuck's a nice guy. He's certainly nice
to be with while daddy's down abanana. And you were born with
an asshole Doris. You don't needChuck.
Ryan Dreimiller (15:03):
But at the end of the movie, the best one was
when Regina was talking to Sam,and they were at that traffic
light, and they were pretendingto be this kind of proper
family, as Regina and Hector,and then the two kids they had
saved, they were all dressed up.
She's taking family photos. It'slike a church. It's like such a
church, yeah. And then Sam's onthe other side of the street,
and she said, come on. Andthey're like, What? What are you
(15:24):
doing? And they refused to crossbecause the light says, you know
it's not to cross. And ofcourse, the streets are
deserted, and Regina says, youmight as well face the facts.
Samantha, the whole burden ofcivilization has fallen upon us.
Sam goes across the street, thiscar comes ripping down, and then
it's this guy. She hops in thecar with him, and she repeats
(15:45):
that line, the burden ofcivilization is on us. And the
guy says,
Movie clip (15:51):
Oh yeah, Bitchin, isn't it?
Shanny Luft (15:55):
Yes, yes. Okay, so my favorite moment takes place
10 seconds after that, when Sam,the younger sister, asks the
guy's name, and he says, DannyMason Keener, and that name does
not mean anything at all in themovie. But then, when he pulls
away, the camera is on thelicense plate. The license plate
says, DMK. I was like so out ofthis movie for paying off a joke
(16:16):
from 90 minutes earlier, DMK isthe initials on the video game
machine, and Reggie is pissedoff that somebody other than her
has got the high score thatimpressed me. That is like the
movie is punching above its paygrade.
Ryan Dreimiller (16:30):
Yes, that was, I was thinking about
that the whole movie. I waslike, who's DMK, right? Because
they, they really spent a lot oftime on the tempest game, the
interaction with the manager,and then she goes back later,
resets the scoreboard, and sheknocks DMK off the top 10, and
they pay it off at the end,which is,
Shanny Luft (16:48):
yeah, that's pretty smart. I mean,
that's like, that's like somewriting that, like they put some
care into this. It feels likethe writers actually cared about
their story, and they knew howto tell a good story. What
surprised me about this movie isthis movie should have been, I
feel like a calling card forthis director. I wonder if
Eberhard had been given a biggerbudget, what he could have done.
But he doesn't end up having ahuge career after that. He works
(17:09):
on, honey, I blew up the kidslike the second or third, honey.
I Shrunk the Kids Movies. It'slike he has a couple of other
movies in the 80s. He's got,like, a decent looking IMDb
credits, but he doesn't become adirector that ever has, like, a
huge hit or anything. And nightof the comments seems like a
good enough movie that I feltlike, wow, he should have gotten
something more out of that. Heshould have gotten a chance to
(17:29):
do a big Hollywood movie.
Ryan Dreimiller (17:32):
I was looking at his film list,
and did you click on the nightbefore? So that was the movie he
did, right after night of thecomments. So apparently, you
know, the night was his jamthere for a little bit. It's got
Keanu Reeves in it. It is awacky ass preview. I've never
heard it or seen it. Doesn't fitinto this podcast, but Right,
that's like a comedy. Oh yeah,I'm gonna watch that one, but
you're right. His credentials,he wound up doing a bunch of
(17:56):
other films, but nothing thatwas really breakthrough or
blockbuster.
Shanny Luft (18:02):
He also did this kind of romantic comedy
called gross anatomy. And I doremember this
Ryan Dreimiller (18:06):
that was popular,
Shanny Luft (18:07):
but it was with Matthew Modine, and it was about
like first year medical school,but look at the Wikipedia page
says the movie cost to make 8.5million, and it made 11 million
night of the comet is his hugebreak. He makes this movie that
just has a audience for the last40 years that has loved that
movie. And I'm just fascinatedabout the fact, like, I feel
(18:27):
like this guy had a couple ofother swings at the bat Tom
Eberhard, but nothing reallyquite ever hit or worked out.
Right? I don't know. Night ofthe Comet I thought was a good
enough movie that it should havegotten him a little more so,
right? Let's pour one out
Ryan Dreimiller (18:40):
when I was watching this movie, it
clearly has a lot of, like, 80ssoundtrack going on.
Shanny Luft (18:46):
Yeah,
Ryan Dreimiller (18:46):
it was weird that, like, none of the songs I
knew, like, Oh, really, wherethey were, like, 80 songs. And
then they got to that mall scenewhere they've gone on the
shopping spree, or they'retrying everything, and then they
play Girls Just Want to Have Funby Cyndi Lauper, yes, and they
come down, they're doing steps,but if you listen to it, it
isn't Cyndi Lauper singing thatsong. It's like, this weird
(19:10):
knock off song. And to me, I waslike, when I was listening to I
was like, What? What? What'sgoing on? It was like, Why is
everything weird with the musicin this movie? And then later I
was reading that it was likeTammy Holbrook or whatever, who
was a backup singer for CyndiLauper. Yeah, yeah, just the
cover, which, maybe that's justbecause of the budget, but just
(19:33):
that just stuck out to me asstrange that they would have,
because that is the perfect songfor that scene, right? But the
fact that it wasn't Cyndi Lauperwas weird.
Shanny Luft (19:42):
Well, they just couldn't afford it. Yeah.
(20:02):
All the songs did have a very80s kind of sound. But people
have affection, not only for themovie, but for the soundtrack.
You can right now go on Spotifyand listen to the night of the
COVID soundtrack.
Ryan Dreimiller (20:12):
Let's do stabby scores. And since I went first
on hell raiser, you're up.
Shanny, what do you got
Shanny Luft (20:17):
that's always the tricky thing about these
stabby scores is I feel likeit's impossible to separate my
assessment of the movie from myaffection for the 1980s that
time period, the clothes, thehair. I love the fact that these
are like two female heroes. Ithought the movie was genuinely
funny. You might need to sitdown for this. I'm going four
stabbies. It does have a problemwith there's not enough
(20:41):
monsters, but I like thecharacters. I like the writing
and I like the plot.
Ryan Dreimiller (20:46):
I agree. Super fun movie. I love
the two sisters. It's wellacted. Hector's fun. I wanted to
see some more zombies in thismovie. It was really fun when
the cop zombie showed up, rightwith more zombies, my rating
would have been a little higher.
I'm gonna bring this one in at astabby rating of three.
Shanny Luft (21:06):
I think that's very fair. And when
that scene I keep talking aboutwhere Reggie is sleeping with
this guy in the movie a booth,he goes outside and then
immediately gets like, hit thehead and killed, like, in Act
One. And that seems to bepromising a lot more zombie
action than the guy, actually.
Ryan Dreimiller (21:21):
Yeah,
Shanny Luft (21:21):
he's off.
Ryan Dreimiller (21:22):
You're like, here we go. And then you'll,
Shanny Luft (21:23):
yeah,
Ryan Dreimiller (21:24):
there's not many more zombies after it. It's
like dream zombies. And then yousee one of the bad dudes in the
mall, and then one of theresearchers start to turn to a
zombie. But it's pretty light onzombies. So if you're looking
for heavy horror, this isn'tyour jam. But if you're looking
for something light, fun,enjoyable, very 80s like that
was really fun to just feel likeyou'd kind of stepped back into
(21:47):
time. Yeah, and I love thatyou've got a piece of this movie
burned into your brain for allthose years that got unlocked
with this watching that's
Shanny Luft (21:55):
Oh man.
It felt like it solved thepuzzle that has been unsolvable
for 40 years.
Ryan Dreimiller (22:00):
Well, hopefully it wasn't, though, my
configuration you haven't openeda portal to the cenobites coming
in and taking you away. So I'llbe here for the next episode.
Shanny Luft (22:08):
Yeah, I guess listeners will have to
tune in and see. All right.
Thank you for listening to slashback cinema. Hope you enjoyed
our conversation about night ofthe comet. If you're interested,
we would love to have you joinus on social media and tell us
what you thought of this movie,or come on and make
recommendations for othermovies. Ryan, where can people
reach us?
Ryan Dreimiller (22:27):
Slash back Cinema.com We're also on socials
at Insta and tick tock. You canalso send us a note directly in
the podcast description,
Shanny Luft (22:35):
and if you want to get some slash back merch, Ryan
has done awesome, inspiringwork.
Ryan Dreimiller (22:39):
You're gonna love it, Slashbackcinema.com,
the links at the top, greatgifts for loved ones or just
yourself you know, might helpyou get through the impending
zombie apocalypse. So well nexttime, thanks for joining.
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