Unseen Terror: Day 19

On the night of Earth passing through the tail of a rogue comet, something that hasn't occurred since the time of the dinosaurs, everyone is celebrating the upcoming event. Everyone except for sisters Regina and Samantha, who are stuck at work and their house respectively. When both wake up in the morning, they see that civilization as we know it has vanished, leaving behind piles of red ash and clothing in place of people. They soon reunite with one another and try to figure out what the hell just happened to earth. Well, in between finding potential survivors, looking for true love, running into zombies, and shopping with no worries that is.

I'm not quite sure what to call this one. It definitely isn't a pure horror film, but then again, it isn't pure ANYTHING. I guess you could call it a potpourri movie, taking in influence from horror, science fiction, comedy, drama, romance and the post-apocalyptic genres. It's got a good enough charm as well to thankfully remain watchable for it's 95 minute runtime. Admittedly, it did get a little slow at times, but seemed to bring itself back around well enough.

The cast is pretty entertaining, with Kelli Maroney being the standout of the bunch. She's a good mixture of charming, amusing, and spunky as the younger of the two sisters. Catherine Mary Stewart, playing the older sister, is pretty good, though I think a later romance angle we see between her and a male co-star felt a bit underdeveloped. The girls do have a good chemistry though, and the scene the two have together in a deserted mall is nothing but pure 80s cheesy fun (complete with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" playing in the background). The only person in the cast I recognized here was Mary Woronov, who I previously saw on this list in TerrorVision, as a scientist who may or may not have an explanation as to what caused humanity to be wiped out. I thought it was kind of amusing to see a poster for Death Race 2000 earlier in the film, one of Woronov's earlier works. The cinematography is well done too for the most part, driving home the point of isolation.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not endlessly praising this. Much like The Lost Boys, it's definitely a product of the 80s, and you have to know what you're getting into beforehand. There's also an incredibly irritating scene early on involving a "nightmare within a nightmare" that just makes you wonder why they even felt the need to include it in the first place. And the fact that there is so much in terms of genre mixups thrown in might be too much for some, or make them wonder what it's even trying to be.

Me though? I had a good enough time with this to recommend it to people with some free time who are into 80s flicks. And I know I'll get some shit for saying this, but I wouldn't mind seeing a remake of this. If you could update it enough to fit the 21st century without seeming obnoxious, I'd be completely behind it.

Tomorrow, I try to fix some of the damage to my car with some new tires, but the tire in RUBBER may have other plans.