New Year’s Eve felt a bit different in 1999. Not simply because it was a different time but because of the pesky “year 2000 problem” that’s more commonly referred to as Y2K. The world anticipated global computer system failures that would cause the shutdown of technology everywhere, including power. It created a widespread panic that […]
![‘Y2K’ Director Kyle Mooney Talks Practical Effects and Keeping Audiences on Their Toes [Interviews]](https://i0.wp.com/bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Y2K_15857_v2-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1710&ssl=1)
Rachel Zegler
Photo Credit: Nicole Rivelli
The filmmaker kicks his disaster comedy off with a potent dose of dial-up nostalgia and coming-of-age comedy that captures the minutiae of the era well. So much so that it’s easy to forget this is a genre film. Once the New Year’s Eve party arrives and the clock strikes midnight, Mooney pulls the rug out from under viewers as he plunges his precocious teen protagonists into an unexpected bloodbath.
That, of course, was by design. Mooney explains, “For me, that’s the stuff that gets me off and is intriguing to me: taking these big left turns and subverting expectation. We knew we wanted it to feel as much like a teen coming-of-age film of the era, which I love. There are so many awesome ones from that time period, à la Can’t Hardly Wait, She’s All That, and 10 Things I Hate About You. But then, even moving forward to Superbad. Truly the dream is that you’re an audience member that knows nothing about this movie, and each moment is like, oh, shit. That you get that reaction. So, hopefully, midnight does that.”
(L-R) Rachel Zegler, Jaeden Martell
Photo Credit: Nicole Rivelli
Also unexpected is just how willing Mooney is to slaughter his charming characters, removing a sense of safety. That also was a calculated move to keep audiences on their toes. “In terms of killing your darlings and these characters, again, that’s something that to me feels like such a left turn that you’re like, oh, well, now it’s going to maybe be a completely different movie than what I had in my head. The tough thing that happens with that, which is maybe obvious, is that some of these characters are already beloved by the audience at this point in the film, so you are taking a risk, but hopefully, they’re a catalyst for the way our other characters move around this universe,” Mooney explains. “But yeah, I love the idea of really taking some swings.”
“I honestly did not grow up watching a ton of horror, and I think that’s because I was probably a little bit of a scaredy-cat,” Mooney, who also plays the role of Garrett in the film, confesses. “I probably invested more of my time in the hard comedies of the era, your Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey movies and Eddie Murphy and whatnot. So horror was something I feel like probably in the last decade I’ve started to invest myself more into.”
The director lists cinematic influences on Y2K that only confirm he’s been studying horror. He tells Bloody Disgusting, “We talked a lot about The Faculty. That was definitely a big one. We had references like Shaun of the Dead or Attack the Block. But tonally, we just wanted everything to feel as grounded as possible, and especially in that first act, really lean into the coming of agenesis of it all so that when that turn comes, if you don’t know anything about the movie, that it’s surprising.”
Y2K boasts great practical effects and creature work from Wētā Workshop, who infuse the rampaging tech with personality that only makes their carnage all the more curious and entertaining. Mooney’s choice to go as practical as possible with the film’s effects was largely informed by the time period. “It was something that Evan and I talked about from moment one, essentially. We really wanted the movie to feel, as much as possible, like a movie that could have come out in this era. Practical effects felt like they made the most sense. I feel like anyone could probably speak on this better than I could, but it just gives it that quality of seeing something happening on screen, and these actors are actually responding to it. It feels, to us and hopefully to the audience, special in some way or another.”
Mooney continues, “Wētā did most of the practical components. I’ll also shout out Jason Singleton, our production designer, who took on a few of them as well. There are some robots in there. Spoilery to some degree, maybe not that much, but there’s a robot called Grelbo, who shoots out CDs. Jason and his team put that together. But yeah, Wētā made our main monster robot. We call him Screen Slayer in the script, but nobody ever says that out loud. As well as Cool Blue, which is Eli’s computer turned into a robot.
“In terms of developing it with Wētā, we definitely gave some references and talked about how we wanted it to appear as this mishmash of technology of the era and even a little bit before the era because you might have that vacuum cleaner that’s been hanging out in your closet for the last seven years or whatever. But Wētā was so great when we pitched them the ideas of what we wanted this stuff to look like; everything they came back with was pretty much almost there from round one.”
Y2K crashes into theaters on December 6, 2024.
