For an unusual twist on the supernatural genre, we go to 1984’s cult classic Night of the Comet. For the first time in 65 million years, a comet will zoom closely to the Earth, and this event creates a stir in everyone – or almost everyone.

Rather than watch the show, 18-year-old Regina Belmont (Catherine Mary Stewart) makes out with her boyfriend Larry (Michael Bowen). Regina’s sister Samantha (Kelli Maroney) pouts after a spat with her cheating stepmother Doris (Sharon Farrell).

When they awake the day after the comet’s arrival, the Belmont sisters learn that they’re among the few survivors in LA. Along with another survivor named Hector (Robert Beltran), they attempt to deal with the menace and stay alive.

Although I was 17 when Comet hit screens in 1984 and would’ve been part of its target audience, for the life of me, I boast no memory of its existence from that period. I think I heard of it a few years later when it entered “cult classic” territory, but I still don’t think I ever saw it.

That meant I went into Comet fairly fresh. Indeed, I don’t believe I had any plot knowledge until I read the synopsis on the back of the Blu-ray’s case.

The fairly inaccurate synopsis, at that. The Blu-ray refers to the sisters as “Valley girls who care more about fashion trends than the celestial phenomenon”.

That’s reasonably accurate about Sam but not even close to correct about the fairly serious Regina. She doesn’t feel “Valley girl” at all.

But the synopsis gets worse. It claims that “when the girls discover that they’re the only residents of Los Angeles whom the comet hasn’t vaporized or turned into zombies, they do what all good Valley girls do… they go shopping!”

Technically, this does occur, but not in the spirit the overview implies. The write-up leads one to believe that Regina and Sam are so superficial that they react to tragedy without blinking. Instead, they use a trip to the mall to cheer up a depressed Sam.

Now that I’ve seen Comet, I wish that the synopsis had been more accurate. It describes a more interesting movie than what we actually get.

Would a flick about Valley girls who deal with an apocalypse have been high art? No, but it would’ve been a whole lot more fun than this tedious piffle.

I’ve seen Comet billed as a parody of “B”-movie horror material, and I guess it kinda sorta does attempt to make fun of the genre, but only in a half-hearted way. Honestly, it doesn’t seem sure what tone it wants to maintain.

It throws out occasional humor. However, those moments seem lackluster, such as when Hector tosses bad one-liners at a zombie kid who attacks him.

When Comet attempts action, it continues to falter. The various attack scenes feel drab and perfunctory, as they lack any obvious sense of excitement. They exist because the movie nominally revolves around them, but they bring no fun to the film.

The actors don’t help. While pretty, Stewart couldn’t act her way out of the proverbial paper bag, and Maroney doesn’t do much better.

Maroney occasionally shows a little spark but mot enough to add pep to the proceedings. The remaining performers fail to stand out in any positive way.

This leaves us with a muddled adventure that lacks wit, excitement or pretty much anything else that’d create an enjoyable movie. I’m not sure how a flick can waste its premise as badly as this one does, but Comet completely squanders its promise. This ends up as a flat, forgettable film.

Night of the Comet appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. An erratic presentation, the movie showed its age.

Sharpness varied. The movie usually looked acceptably detailed but rarely much more than that. Not too many scenes looked really ill-defined, but few came across as particularly distinctive; most of Comet was acceptably concise and no more.

Jagged edges and shimmering caused no concerns. I encountered no signs of edge haloes or noise reduction.

Print flaws became a distraction at times. Though never especially heavy, I did notice moderate examples of specks and marks. Again, these didn’t ruin the image, but I thought it could/should have been substantially cleaner.

Colors seemed erratic. They displayed the usual Eighties murkiness much of the time, but they also occasionally looked reasonably vibrant and distinct. For the most part, the hues came across as somewhat messy.

Black levels tended to appear somewhat inky, while shadow detail was a little too dense much of the time. Interiors seemed fairly flat and muddy. This was a mediocre presentation.

Although the disc advertises a DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, you’ll not find any multichannel goodness here. If you activate the 5.1 option, you’ll find material that comes from nowhere other than the front center channel.

If you switch to the DTS-HD MA 2.0 mix, you’ll still get mono, though it offers awkward mono. The material tends to lean toward the left side of the spectrum.

So what happened to the promised 5.1 track? I have no idea.

I suspect someone screwed up the authoring, as I’m not sure how else to explain the circumstance. This isn’t a case of a conservative multichannel remix, as instead, there’s literally no audio from anywhere other than the front center.

The quality of the material seemed average for its age. Speech was intelligible and lacked edginess, but the lines tended to be somewhat thin and tinny.

Music lacked much range, as the score and songs were clear but without pizzazz. Effects also didn’t muster a lot of punch and they occasionally showed some roughness. This was a decent track for its age but not anything memorable.

Packed with extras, Comet launches with three separate audio commentaries. In the first, we hear from actors Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney. Along with moderator Edwin Samuelson, they talk about their casting, characters and performances as well as sets/locations, cast and crew, costumes, and the film’s legacy.

Apparently long-time friends, Maroney and Stewart show a nice chemistry and they make this a pleasant chat. The discussion can sputter at times – especially in the flick’s second half – but it comes with enough charm and worthwhile material to make it worth a listen.

For the second commentary, we find thoughts from writer/director Thom Eberhardt. Along with moderator/disc producer Michael Felsher, the filmmaker examines the project’s origins and development, story/characters, inspirations and influences, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, effects, visual design, stunts/action and connected subjects.

Eberhardt builds a good head of steam early in the track and maintains that forward momentum the rest of the way. We get lots of useful information in this strong piece.

The final commentary features production designer John Muto. Also paired with Felsher, he discusses how he got into movies and aspects of his career, his work on Comet and other domains connected to the film.

This becomes another satisfying chat. Muto provides a fine examination of his efforts and related domains to turn this into an informative discussion.

More from the lead actors comes in Valley Girls at the End of the World. It goes for 14 minutes, 59 seconds and offers additional thoughts from Stewart and Maroney.

Recorded separately, they talk about their characters/performances and other thoughts about the film. Some of the info from the commentary repeats, but we still get a nice overview.

During The Last Man on Earth?, we get a 12-minute, 31-second chat with actor Robert Beltran. He discusses his career, how he came to Comet, his character and his approach to the role, and other thoughts about his experiences.

Unlike the others, Beltran covers areas that bothered him. As such, this turns into a frank and informative piece.

Curse of the Comet fills six minutes, 32 seconds. It brings info from makeup effects designer John B. Miller.

He covers aspects of his career and his work on Comet. Miller offers a nice take on his makeup creations.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find two photo galleries. “Film Photo Gallery” shows 39 shots from the movie and a few ads, while “Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery” displays 57 images.

These mostly offer snaps from the set, but we also find some storyboards and concept art. “Behind the Scenes” becomes the more interesting of the pair.

A second disc delivers a DVD copy of Comet. It includes all the same extras as the Blu-ray.

Over the last few decades, Night of the Comet developed a good cult following, but I can’t figure out why. Dull and amateurish, the movie comes with few positives and leaves me entirely cold. The Blu-ray presents mediocre picture and audio along with a pretty strong package of bonus materials. If you love the movie, you’ll want this Blu-ray, but I can’t recommend it to non-fans, as I think the flick is a dud.