Night of the Comet

Night of the Comet (1984) is a sci-fi horror comedy you can watch online on iFILM. When Earth drifts through the tail of a passing comet, nearly everyone outside is reduced to a heap of red dust overnight. Tom Eberhardt directs.

Two sisters wake up unscathed: streetwise Regina and her teenage sibling Samantha, a pair of Valley Girls who suddenly have all of empty Los Angeles to themselves. Deserted malls, an abandoned radio station, keys left in every car. The fun curdles fast, though. People who caught a partial dose of the radiation are turning feral, and a clinical team of scientists wants the survivors for reasons of their own. Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney and Robert Beltran lead the cast.

The movie has aged into a midnight-movie favorite: neon, synth-pop, shotguns and a shopping spree at the end of the world. The mood leans playful rather than grim, and that cheeky streak is exactly why it lasts. Stream Night of the Comet (1984) online on iFILM.