While many might forget the hullaballoo and furious speculation about the world’s end with the dawn of a new century on Jan. 1, 2000, Kyle Mooney never could – and his comical horror show “Y2K” is proof.
The “SNL” veteran, making his directing debut, can point to New Year’s Day 2019 when he woke with his vision of a loopy comedy centered around Y2K and called his writing buddy Evan Winter for them to pitch a movie as if Y2K actually happened.
“It is funny to think about looking back on it,” Winter said in a joint phone interview. “Because there was so much fear and anticipation and anxiety leading up to Y2K in real life. Then it kind of just arrived – and a lot of nothing happened.”
“Over the years I’ve commented a few times,” Mooney, 40, said, “that it’s a surprise no one’s ever attempted to make a Y2K disaster movie.”
Actually, Roman Polanski, the Oscar-winning director of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown,” made a French Y2K horror comedy set in a posh Swiss hotel that has yet to be shown here.
Polanski went for farcical collisions. Mooney gets grim with rampaging computer-melded monsters running amok. Only it begins as a sticky sweet sendup of ‘90s first romance teen movies. Shockingly “Y2K” swiftly switches gears as monstrous computer creations stalk the living and make them dead.
“The horror and sci-fi were always ingrained in the initial pitch,” Mooney emphasized. “But almost more interesting – and just as important to us! – was the first act of the movie doing the sort of like ‘99 era, coming of age high school movie. That era actually had some pretty iconic teen movies. It was fun pulling from those and also really establishing that universe in that time period that means so much to us, and that we grew up in.”
Winter noted, “The hope is when you go in not knowing anything about the movie, in those first 20 minutes before the clock strikes midnight, you do think that is what this movie is. Movies like ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ where these kids are going to get drunk for the first time or find new friends. Or have friendships breaking apart. We really wanted to fully feel like that is what you’re in for.
“Then it veers quite suddenly.”
Mooney’s “Y2K” embraces nostalgia for the time when computers and cell phones were really just beginning their cultural dominance. There was America Online. Fuzzy visuals.
“That is the iconography of the era. Immediately when you see it, you know where you are. Our movie opens up with the AOL sign-in. For most of us who lived at that time, you spent countless hours on your computer and interacted in that way, It was pretty central to bring that esthetic and vibe.”
“Not to get too high minded,” Winter added. “But the technology of the era, the computers of the era, you log on and everything was slow.
“But once you were off the internet, once you left your computer, it was like you didn’t really have access to it like we do today with your mobile every waking second.
“So there’s something that does feel like a disconnect from the time we’re currently living in – and that really appealed to us.”
“Y2K” opens in theaters Dec. 6