History Film / NightOfTheComet

* EightiesHair: Oh dear Lord, yes.

* ActionGirl: Samantha and Regina.

* CometOfDoom: It kicks off the entire film.

* ContrivedCoincidence: So the only two female non-zombified survivors in the entire city happen to be sisters? How convenient for them that they both managed to adequately shield themselves in different places on the same night. [[spoiler: Then there's DMK.]]
** Also, The girls manage to team up with seemingly the sole male left alive in the city, who also just happens to be young, and handsome so that they both have an attractive male to fight over, and not an overweight, 60-year-old college professor or something that neither would like.

* CrazyPrepared: The SoleSurvivingScientist group detected a relationship between the comet approaching [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs and the extinction of the dinosaurs]] and so made an advanced bunker lab to ride out the approach. [[spoiler:It only partially worked. Some idiot didn't fully lock down the bunker and enough radiation seeped in through the open ventilation that they are all dead men walking.]]

* DeadManWalking: [[spoiler: All of the zombies.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Regina, Samantha, and also Audrey White.

* DreamWithinADream: Sam has one (two?) of these involving zombie motorcycle cops.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Regina's boyfriend Larry isn't the greatest of guys, but he's not entirely a JerkAss either. He's one of a handful of people who are lucky enough to be in a place safe from the comet's rays, and makes it to the next day (whereas billions of others did not.) Just as it seems he's going to be a key player in events, he opens the door to leave the theater, is murdered by a comet zombie with a wrench, and exits the film in he first act.]]

* FalloutShelterFail: Fortunately the United States' best and brightest have built themselves a hermetically sealed bunker to preserve the science and scientific knowledge need to rebuild human survival. Unfortunately, on the titular night, the geniuses left the external air pumps running, sucking in the tainted air, and dooming themselves to a slow zombification process.
* {{Fanservice}}: In one scene Sam (who already was running around in a cheerleader outfit) undresses down to her bra and panties to wash off in the radio station's bathroom, [[spoiler:and then the zombie cop of her nightmare one moment prior suddenly appears behind her and stabs her. Turns out that the scene was a DreamWithinADream.]]

* ForeShadowing: In the opening scene, a reporter makes an offhand mention of how on the other side of the world, where the comet has already appeared, communications have oddly ceased...
** Also: [[spoiler: The think tank scientists' conversation about the effects of partial exposure. The way the scene is framed, it makes it seem that the main protagonists are the ones who are potentially dying from partial exposure. In reality, it's the scientists themselves who were all accidentally exposed, and all the positive action they seem to be taking to "help" the survivors is just a ruse to render them brain dead and use them to help the think tank scientists survive.]]

* GroinAttack: Unleashed by Sam upon one of the zombie
* HeadacheOfDoom: As the comet is passing over LA and giving a spctacular light show, the final thing we see before the next day is Doris fidgeting a little before gently clutching her head and worriedly looking up at the comet's lightshow.

* LookBothWays: [[spoiler: Parodied and subverted in the final scene. Sam manages to say that it's a ghost town and how the hell does it matter anyway that she stands on the street just two seconds before she has to get the hell out of a way of a racing BMW.]]

* WickedStepmother: The girls consider their stepmother to be one of these. Considering she thinks nothing of cheating on their father with the neighbor and ''punching them'', they've got a point.

''Night of the Comet'' is a 1984 film written and directed by Thom Eberhardt, starring Creator/CatherineMaryStewart, Creator/RobertBeltran, Kelli Maroney, Sharon Farrell, Creator/MaryWoronov, and Creator/GeoffreyLewis. It contains elements of such diverse genres as science fiction, horror, zombie apocalypse, comedy, and romance.

* WhatAnIdiot: In-universe. [[spoiler: Audrey basically says this about her own group screwing up their survival plan.]]

* GroinAttack: Unleashed by Sam upon one of the zombie stockboys.

* YoureInsane: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Regina - and [[DefiedTrope gleefully defied]] by the leader of the zombified stockboys.

* VisualGag: There is a poster for the Clark Gable and Jean Harlow movie ''Red Dust'' on the theater door after everyone has been turned into a literal approximation of the film's title.

** Willy's PrecisionFStrike quoted above is an R-rated version of a WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck line in ''WesternAnimation/DaffyDuckAndEgghead'' ("I'm not crazy, I just don't give a darn!").

** When Reggie's boyfriend leaves the theater, and the zombie gabs him with a wrench, the shot very much looks like an homage to ''Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974''. The way the door opens to show a close-up of the murderer, and the long shot where he lands a few more extra blows to the downed victim.
** To ''Film/ValleyGirl''. Both movies are produced by the same company, share an actor (Michael Bowen), and Sam holds up the ''Valley Girl'' soundtrack LP during her brief stint as a DJ.

* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: Seems to be the case with Dr. Carter. Having crossed over into full comet zombie mode, he gets into a car to chase the unaffected survivors with Dr. Wilson and other team members. Wilson loudly states he smells gasoline, indicating the car is booby-trapped. Carter makes eye contact with Wilson, reaches over and deliberately turns the key, Blowing up himself, Wilson, and anyone else in the car with them.

* EmptyPilesOfClothing: The only thing left of most of the world's inhabitants.

* DidIMentionItsChristmas: A few hints - decorations in stores, radio broadcasts, Hector dressing as Santa to surprise the girls - suggest it's the holiday season, although the buildup to and hype about "Comet Night" seems to have taken precedence due to the latter being a rare celestial event.

* ShoutOut: When Reggie's boyfriend leaves the theater, and the zombie gabs him with a wrench, the shot very much looks like an homage to the first ''Texas Chainsaw Massacre''. The way the door opens to show a close-up of the murderer, and the long shot where he lands a few more extra blows to the downed victim.
** To ''Film/ValleyGirl''. Both movies are produced by the same company, share an actor (Michael Bowen) and Sam holds up the ''Film/ValleyGirl'' soundtrack LP during her brief stint as a DJ.
** When Larry is on the phone making a deal to rent out one of the movie theater's films to a buddy, the backround music overheard on the film Larry is currently screening at the theater is the same music that plays when Roger is fighting off the blonde female zombie in the truck from the 1978 Film/DawnOfTheDead. Later [[spoiler: Larry gets killed and eaten by someone who was partially exposed to the effects of the comet and turned into a "comet zombie."]]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The voice of the radio station disc jockey is provided by Steve LeBeau, and he even identifies himself as such in some of his pre-recorded tracks in the film. LeBeau really was a Los Angeles-based disc jockey at the time the film was made, and his vocal performance would have been an Easter egg to L.A. audiences who saw the film around that time.

''Night of the Comet'' is a 1984 film written and directed by Thom Eberhardt, starring Creator/CatherineMaryStewart, Creator/RobertBeltran, Kelli Maroney, Sharon Farrell, Creator/MaryWoronov, and Creator/GeoffreyLewis. It has elements of such diverse genres as science fiction, horror, zombie apocalypse, comedy, and romance.

It centers around the Earth passing through the tail of a rogue comet -- an event which has not occurred in 65 million years, the last time coinciding with [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs]]. On the night of the comet's mid-December passage, large crowds gather to witness and celebrate the event. The following morning, a reddish haze covers everything, and there are no people, animals or other signs of life, only small piles of red dust and empty clothes where people stood and watched the comet's passage. The "survivors" are either dying or turning into [[FleshEatingZombie flesh-eating zombies]]. Regina (Stewart) and Samantha (Maroney) Belmont, teen sisters in Los Angeles, are the movie's protagonists.

Despite the schlocky opening scenes, the movie seems to be an attempt at a {{Deconstruction}} of typical thriller movies of the era, in that both leads are capable {{Action Girl}}s rather than just monster bait (in fact, [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer another Californian blonde who fought the undead in the next decade]] bears suspicious similarities to them), the lead male is {{H|umansAreWhite}}ispanic, [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge-dropping]] is played with, and so on.

It centers around the Earth passing through the tail of a rogue comet -- an event which has not occurred in 65 million years, the last time coinciding with [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs]]. On the night of the comet's mid-December passage, large crowds gather to witness and celebrate the event. The following morning, a reddish haze covers everything, and there are no people, animals or other signs of life, only small piles of red dust and empty clothes where people stood and watched the comet's passage. The people who "survived" are either dying, or turning into flesh eating zombies. Regina (Stewart) and Samantha (Maroney) Belmont, teenaged sisters in Los Angeles, are the movie's protagonists.

''Night of the Comet'' is a 1984 film directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Creator/CatherineMaryStewart, Creator/RobertBeltran, and Kelli Maroney. It has elements of such diverse genres as science fiction, horror, zombie apocalypse, comedy, and romance.

It centers around the Earth passing through the tail of a rogue comet -- an event which has not occurred in 65 million years, the last time coinciding with [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs]]. On the night of the comet's mid-December passage, large crowds gather to witness and celebrate the event. The following morning, a reddish haze covers everything, and there are no people, animals or other signs of life, only small piles of red dust and empty clothes where people stood and watched the comet's passage. The people who "survived" are either dying, or turning into flesh eating zombies. Siblings Samantha and Regina Belmont are the film's protagonists.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_1474.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:The comet's coming, and the world will never be the same.]]

The plot centers around the Earth passing through the tail of a rogue comet -- an event which has not occurred in 65 million years, the last time coinciding with [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs]]. On the night of the comet's impending mid-December passage, large crowds gather to celebrate the event. The next morning, a reddish haze covers everything, and there are no people, animals or other signs of life, only small piles of red dust and empty clothes where people stood and watched the comet's passage. The people who "survived" are either dying, or turning into flesh eating zombies. Siblings Samantha and Regina Belmont are the film's protagonists.

The plot centers around The Earth passing through the tail of a rogue comet -- an event which has not occurred in 65 million years, the last time coinciding with [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs]]. On the night of the comet's impending mid-December passage, large crowds gather to celebrate the event. The next morning, a reddish haze covers everything, and there are no people, animals or other signs of life, only small piles of red dust and empty clothes where people stood and watched the comet's passage. The people who "survived" are either dying, or turning into flesh eating zombies. Siblings Samantha and Regina Belmont are the film's protagonists.

Not to be confused with ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105871/ Year Of The Comet]]''.