Great News Movie Fans

I just saw a rumor making its rounds on various websites. I don't know how I missed it as the first such report appears to have been made in September! The most credible of these sites is Aint it Cool News, but at least 3 other sources have mentioned it. I hope it’s true and I hope it’s done right. I have been clamoring for it to be done for a decade or more and my dream might just be realized. It’s also a very odd coincidence because I just mentioned this movie in my post of last night!

The rumor is that Kelli Maroney is reprising her role as Samantha Belmont and teaming with Thom Eberhardt, the writer/director of the original, and filming a sequel to Night of the Comet! Man, that has me salivating.

This campy, cheesy 80’s popcorn movie was so much fun and so typical of the time. It’s almost a period piece really. Right down to the Cyndi Lauper hit Girls Just Want to Have Fun being on the soundtrack. It’s all here, teenage recklessness, corporate bashing, unbearable materialism in America, all the old 80’s mantras.

God this movie was fun. The basic premise is this: Two sisters, Samanthan Belmont played by Kelli Maroney (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and Regina Belmont played by Catherine Mary Stewart (The Last Starfighter, Weekend at Bernies) are fortuitously spared sudden death by a comet that sweeps over earth on Christmas Eve. Everyone else has arranged comet parties and stood outside seeking a glimpse. They were, of course, vaporized.

The sisters awake to find themselves totally alone. Moments of grief hysterically interrupted by the revelation that the shopping malls are fair game. Samantha pines for her boyfriend, since turned to dust, and sensible Regina seems to find freedom in this new state of affairs. Her best line coming as she gets sick and tired of hearing about Chuck, Samantha’s dead boyfriend. “Samantha, you were born with an asshole, you don’t need Chuck!”

The sisters quickly find it’s not going to be all that easy. Some people, rather than being completely turned to a fine red powder, have been mutated. Flesh eating zombies and people in various states of mutation begin hunting down the pair at every turn. Some greedy corporate types that foresaw the coming tragedy but saw profit in it turn up to offer a cool twist. This movie was just an absolute blast and an easy cult classic.

You can catch it from time to time on the Sci-fi Channel, but it’s horribly edited and really not the same film. I have heard that some cable networks are offering it on Pay Per View, try and catch it. Reports are rampant that the negative has long been lost and this film just wont ever see the light of DVD. It’s a shame because this movie will be funny and creepy 20 years from now. It’s so 80’s and the whole Valley Girl thing is so funny. If you get a chance to watch it please do.

Eberhardt also directed the terrible Captain Ron and the little known Gross Anatomy with Mathew Modine. He’s done little of note since but I love the fact that he is back for the sequel. Here’s hoping it’s not some terrible B movie with zero budget. I want the full treatment. Valley Girl all grown up, should be a blast. No word, by the way, that I can find on whether or not Catherine Mary Stewart will be back. I hope so, those two played wonderfully off of one another and added a nice dynamic to the original. I do think Mary Woronov is coming back, she was most recently seen in the Devils Rejects and gives me some hope there is a budget after all. We will see. In the meantime, someone start a letter writing campaign and get the original on DVD!!!