The entire world watches and waits to see a comet pass across the sky that hasn’t been seen from Earth since the age of the dinosaurs. Something once-in-several-lifetimes like this deserves some serious attention, so comet watch parties overtake the evening’s festivities. There’s just one problem: the comet turns those who witness it to dust, or worse, they turn into zombies that will soon become dust. Lucky for sisters, Reggie and Sam, as well as a few other characters we meet along the way, they miss the event. The world they wake up to is a post-apocalyptic dust bowl where the only sound is a prerecorded radio show coming in over the air waves.

Night of the Comet is hardly a zombie movie. As a matter of fact, it is hardly an apocalypse movie. Really, what Night of the Comet is, is a conspiracy movie. A group of scientists who knew about the effects of the coming comet hid themselves to survive the night, but one idiot scientist left the air vent open and the comet dust came in and infected them all. In a desperate attempt to give themselves more time to discover a cure for the comet’s effects, they are killing innocent survivors to harvest their untainted blood. It’s up to Reggie and Sam to stop them before they kill all the remaining survivors.

The synopsis may not make it clear, but Night of the Comet, more than anything else, is a comedy. Reggie and Sam are Valley Girl types thrust into a zombie-infested world, and the movie plays it smart by playing it straight. This is a real apocalypse these girls are experiencing, but even if you can take the girl out of the Valley, you can’t take the Valley out of the girl. Despite their circumstances, Reggie and Sam keep their priorities straight. Their focus is on dating and shopping. Reggie and a boy named Hector end up connecting as they thwart the evil scientists, but who is there for Sam to date if everyone else is dead? And though they go shopping for guns to defend themselves with, they also make sure to give their wardrobe some attention. After all, this is prime time for a new fashion trend.

The movie is action-packed with interesting set pieces and a surprisingly satisfying visual style. Some of the set design is outdated (the radio station the girls meet Hector looks like the 1980s got food poisoning and vomited neon), but that adds to the fun, right? Perhaps, that’s why the movie has seemingly gained a cult following. That nostalgia for the 80s that’s crept into modern Horror properties needs to have a point of reference, after all. The film also follows a rising 80s trend of strong female protagonists, but Reggie seems to never get lumped in with Ripley and Sarah Connor on the lists nerds make to justify their hatred of the latest Star Wars heroine and Sam never truly gets the credit she deserves as the inspiration for Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Some films just can’t escape their B-movie standing, I guess.

The film is far from perfect, however. The editing lacks a rhythm to it and some scenes last longer than they need to, the actors outside of Reggie (Catherine Mary Stewart, who also starred that same year in The Last Starfighter and was on Days of Our Lives the year before that) are wooden and directionless throughout most of the movie, and some decisions are outright head-scratching (the whole DMK resolution feels tacked on because the writer thought it was way more important than it was). While it has its flaws, there’s enough about Night of the Comet to enjoy a movie night and makes you wish stores like Blockbuster were still a thing. It’s a perfect October rental.