Y2K (2024) review – A tonally confused trip to 1999

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are checking out Kyle Mooney’s A24 science fiction horror comedy Y2K (2024).

Let’s go back to 1999

As you can probably guess, this movie takes place in the waning hours of 1999. Remember the whole Y2K crisis? The panic about planes dropping out of the sky and toasters coming to life to murder people? Well, Y2K, basically, presents the comedy horror side of that scenario.

“Kyle Mooney takes a bunch of ill-fitting ingredients and mixes them in a pot together, only to serve the poorly blended mess with a flagrant disregard for how well the disparate parts go together.”

Friends Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison) decide to crash the popular kids’ party in the hopes of Eli getting lucky with hot chick Laura (Rachel Zegler), only for the Y2K prophecies to come true and threaten to ruin not only Eli’s chances of getting lucky, but the world entirely.

Y2K is a weird mix of stoner teen comedy à la American Pie or Road Trip, dodgy science fiction horror, and soppy romance. Writer and director Kyle Mooney takes a bunch of ill-fitting ingredients and mixes them in a pot together, only to serve the poorly blended mess on a plate with no seasoning and a flagrant disregard for how well the disparate parts go together.

It’s extremely over familiar

Y2K opens as your typical teen comedy with a distinctly 90s vibe. Nerdy dudes head to a party, one of them wants to bump uglies with the popular girl, things are a bit awkward, and our main protagonist doesn’t really seem comfortable.

The early scenes are punctuated by tropey generational stuff like CD players, Tae Bo, Sony Handycams, and Tamagotchis. All while we are serenaded by a bunch of songs I only enjoy listening to when very drunk: Tubthumping, Praise You, 9pm (Till I Come), Break Stuff et al. It’s all very familiar and not particularly entertaining. The comedy doesn’t land all that well, and the concept feels very old and painfully recycled.

Things take a turn for the worse when midnight hits and the techno-horror stuff starts. The movie then transforms into something of a traditional horror with regards to the tried-and-tested formula of a group of survivors looking for sanctuary and surviving against the odds.

Some fairly interesting science fiction ideas offer a bit of hope, but they never really lead to any scares or any moments of genuine excitement. The movie quickly devolves into a plodding, tropey survival horror with little to offer and a bizarre lack of cohesion.

Y2K‘s early feel-good vibes are massively at odds with some of its later scenes. Mooney attempts to mesh comedy horror with soppy romance stuff and sad moments of loss. It made me think of Anna and the Apocalypse with regards to the confusing tonal mix. It’s trying to be something to everyone while never actually managing to find a comfortable middle ground.

Tonally very confused

This whole film is very tonally confused; who is it aimed at? The group that will appreciate the teen comedy were too young to have even experienced the 90s to get the references. The references aren’t relevant or interesting enough to hold up on their own. The group old enough to have experienced the 90s won’t appreciate the teen romance crap. The horror is pretty poor by all standards, and I don’t know who the Limp Bizkit references are for?

This is a movie remake of The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror segment “Life’s a Glitch, Then You Die”, complete with D-list celebrities like Alicia Silverstone and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.

This is a movie remake of The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror segment “Life’s a Glitch, Then You Die”, complete with D-list celebrities like Alicia Silverstone and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst. Only without the entertaining family at the centre of the story, the hilarious comedy, and the fantastic writing.

It doesn’t help that most of the acting performances are pretty sub-standard. This movie made it very clear to me that, barring some massive progression, Jaeden Martell is a very one-note actor. He is capable of playing these “nice guy” roles, but I am yet to see him progress beyond that.

Kyle Mooney’s stint as stoner video store owner Garret is pretty cringe-worthy, too. Naturally, being the director, he gives himself a lot of screen time, focusing the shot on his own face for extended periods as he gurns relentlessly. Pulling off what I can only describe as a, somehow, worse version of the character Pauly Shore always played.

Rachel Zegler emotes like she learned how to copy human expressions from emoticons, and Fred Durst is… well… Fred Durst. Actually, I enjoyed Fred Durst a lot in this movie, so I’m not going to complain.

There are some plus points

There are a few chuckle-worthy moments here and there. Don’t get me wrong, I felt a little bit ashamed of myself laughing at them, but it’s true. The entire cast constantly referring to the Limp Bizkit guys by their full names repeatedly made me snicker. Fred Durst doesn’t take himself at all seriously here, and I really enjoyed that as a lapsed fan of the band. The visual of a much older Durst playing a much younger Durst was quite amusing, as well. I could have lived without the extended rendition of George Michael’s Faith, though. Again, I am not sure who that was for.

Julian Dennison has a promising future as an affable sidekick à la Jacob Batalon in Spider-Man. He is both likable and charismatic. Some of the tech-laden monster designs were pretty neat and fairly well done.

“The visual of a much older Durst playing a much younger Durst was quite amusing… Fred Durst doesn’t take himself at all seriously here.”

Zegler finds her feet later in the movie, settling in a bit and feeling more natural. The 90s references are over the top and far too frequent, especially where the soundtrack is concerned. But if you like that kind of thing, you will enjoy it here. You, at least, get the vibe that this movie was made by someone born in the 80s who experienced the 90s first-hand, which is nice.

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