I am penning (keyboarding, to be precise) this article on the day of the great solar eclipse of 2017. My lovely better half commented to me yesterday that all the eclipse talk was making her think of the 1984 Horror “masterpiece” NIGHT OF THE COMET. Technically there was no eclipse in the movie, as it was a comet and not the moon that blacked out the sun, but that’s close enough. The comet zips past, turning everybody it doesn’t immediately disintegrate into zombies. Only two high school girls and the dude they encounter later on are left to battle the hordes of the undead. There are obvious parallels to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and its returning space probe (as well as to DAWN OF THE DEAD, as it essentially has the same plot, sans the comet). The flick is gloriously bad and a lot of fun to watch. A good way to spend eclipse night, I reckon.
By the way, NIGHT OF THE COMET with its two Valley Girl heroines inspired Joss Whedon to create BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. And to offer another piece of cinematic trivia, NIGHT OF THE COMET was one of the first movies to ever be released with the new rating of PG-13. Now you know.