I had heard the title Night of the Comet years ago, but knew nothing about it.
A few weeks ago, my local arthouse played it as a double bill with the similarly apocalyptic Miracle Mile. I had planned on watching both movies, but Comet started at 8:30 and I ended up heading home early.
A self-aware genre piece, Night of the Comet feels a decade ahead. In its favour, there is no sense of self-defeating irony.
The movie opens like it is on a sugar rush - throwing out movie references, winking at its own tropes, and throwing out legitimate horror and sci-fi moments.
It is juggling so many different tones, it is exhilarating how effortlessly it manages to keep them all in balance - for a while, at least.
It features the kind of strong female protagonist that feels almost like a cliche now. But in 1984?
She flips the familiar dynamic with the male lead, taking charge of every situation, and proving to be a dap hand at (and super-knowledgeable about) handling firearms.
There is a certain wish fulfilment quality to Reggie that feels designed by a man: she is a nerd (Introduced obsessed with beating her score on a video-game), a survival expert who is competent with guns, and a beautiful woman.
While Catherine Mary Stewart has some great moments and lines, but the real standout is Kelli Maroney as her sister Sam.
She seems to have a sense of the tone, and manages to make Sam feel like a recognisable person - she plays the stakes of being in the apocalypse where every aspect of life has collapsed, but also being a teenager who is still interested in sex, having fun and uh… makeovers.
The filmmakers were interested in mixing the end of the world with characters you would not see in that kind of scenario. Having teenagers - and specifically eighties teens - creates a unique clash.
We get all the familiar tropes of an eighties teen movie - from a love triangle to the John Hughes-style angst, to a shopping montage in a mall.
What is refreshing about both characters is that they see the potential of the new world. Even at its bleakest, there is a youthful optimism to the characters that provides a unique perspective.
If there is a problem with this aspect of the movie, it seems like the characters have no real problems with the basics - outside of connecting with other humans.
Where other survival movies focus on - and to some extent - romanticise the idea of the loner figuring out existence on their own, Night of the Comet is more concerned with finding interpersonal connections, whether that is the fraught sibling dynamic that the sisters have to overcome, to a potential romantic partner (Robert Beltran).
The movie does not seem to have a firm idea of where it wants to take these ideas - we end with our heroes forming a makeshift nuclear family, literally play-acting the roles of ‘mom’ and ’dad’. In this apocalypse, the eighties ethos of consumerism, militarism and the traditional family endure as parody, a performance for morale.
The film is often beautiful to look at - filled with neon and chiaroscuro, it evokes both the aesthetic of the era, but in a way that foregrounds its apocalyptic unease.
I was not aware of how low the budget was until after watching the movie. It cost less than a million dollars, yet it is filled with a variety of found locations. The real coup of the production is the number of exterior scenes showing empty city streets.
The film feels epic in scope and constantly reminds the viewer of how alone our heroines really are.
The never-ending soundtrack (including a cover of ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ in the mall montage) starts to feel like ghosts from the dead world, cheery spectres haunting the empty cityscapes.
The third act is a bit of a damp squib. The secret base and the rogue scientists are fine, but this is the one part of the movie where you can feel the movie running out.
A fascinating blender of genres, Night of the Comet is a time capsule of its era, a progenitor of what was to come in genre cinema, and an inspiration for low-budget filmmakers.
No comments:
Post a Comment