Y2K is a 2024 horror comedy that’s the directorial debut of Kyle Mooney. You may or may not know Mooney as a Saturday Night Live cast member from 2013 to 2022, but he also co-wrote and starred in a weird movie called BRIGSBY BEAR (2017) and I would highly recommend Saturday Morning All Star Hits! (S.M.A.S.H.!), an eight episode parody of ‘90s children’s programming he co-created in 2021. This shares with those a surface appearance of millennial nostalgia but with such specific pop cultural observations and such weird comedy ideas that it never feels like “Hey, remember that!?” in a bad way. The joke isn’t ha, we used to have VHS, it’s that an evil VCR kills somebody by ejecting a dubbed and hand-labelled VARSITY BLUES at their head.
As you may guess from the title this is set on a New Year’s Eve, 1999 when a sort of Y2K problem does happen – not computer systems breaking down, but electronic devices forming a shared consciousness, combining together into robots and trying to take over the world. Tamagotchis and iMacs attached to wheels and power drills going around attacking people. The animatronic effects (by Weta Workshop!) remind me of VIRUS, but instead of happening on a boat it revolves around a high school party. It’s kinda like SUPERBAD meets MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. (read the rest of this shit…)
