Y2K Movie Review: Nostalgic Yet Falls Flat

What if the Y2K catastrophe actually happened? This is what A24’s newest film looks to answer in the form of a horror comedy directed by Kyle Mooney. Starring Rachel Zegler alongside Jaeden Martell, a group of teenagers must avoid murderous technology and try to save their town before it’s too late.

Check out our Y2K movie review below and remember spoilers ahead!

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Y2K Movie Review – Breaking Down Plot, Setting, Characters

Plot

It’s 1999, and the highly anticipated New Year’s Eve will call in a new year and a new millennium. Eli and Danny, high school outcasts, plan a fun night of watching movies and playing games until they hear about other people’s plans, including Eli’s crush, Laura, attending an NYE party. Fed up with being on the outs, the two break into Eli’s parent’s liquor cabinet and find the liquid courage to go to the party at “soccer” Chris’s house.

The party has everyone there, from potheads to skaters to rappers and, of course, the popular kids. While Danny immediately gets sucked in by lipsyncing to “Thong Song,” Eli has trouble finding his place and even gets dissed by his friend later in the night. Tired of everything, Eli watches Laura kiss Chris as the year turns to 2000. That’s when things take a dark turn, with the electronics in the house cutting out and reappearing as murderous machines.

As kids throughout the house get mowed down by microwaves, Tamagotchis, VHS players, and electronic beds, Eli, Danny, and Laura try to make it to the garage for safety. Making it to the garage, they meet a couple of other kids, such as CJ and Ash. The group plans to go to the Old Factory, where there is no technology, and they will be safe. Unfortunately, several of them die along the way, including Danny.

With only CJ, Ash, Eli, and Laura remaining, they meet the “Kollectiv” and plan to breach the high school where the robots have collected. Laura stays behind at first, hurt that she is seen only as popular and nothing else, but realizes her computer skills can create a Trojan Horse to infect and destroy the murderous technology. Catching up with the other three, they make it to the school alongside Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) ready to take the computers down.

After a failed speech by Eli, Durst sings one of his songs and distracts the computer monsters long enough for Laura to break into the mainframe and implement her kill switch alongside Eli. The computers are successfully destroyed, with Laura and Eli sealing their feelings with a kiss. The movie ends with a scene from five years in the future, with Laura, Eli, and Ash visiting Danny’s grave and talking about graduating college.

The storyline was interesting at first, and I’m a little surprised nothing has been made already about Y2K going wrong. But, to name this as a comedy horror is a little bit of a stretch. Yes, there are graphic moments you wouldn’t want to show your kids, and there are moments that made me laugh, but as a whole, the film fell flat. A lot of the elements felt a little rushed or not of great quality, and the ending was probably the most rushed, with the final fight scene crammed into the last twenty or so minutes.

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Setting

While I did not grow up during the 90s, a lot of the elements had a great amount of nostalgia for those who did. From clothing choices to CD players wired up to cars, the film screamed the 1990s. The film is set in a smaller town celebrating New Year’s Eve and features settings like the local high school, Chris’s house, the woods, and the Old Factory.

While there are only a few places the characters go in the film, I think it works well. It doesn’t have to be shown worldwide to understand the devastation spreads that far, especially when two planes crash into each other in the sky. It also wouldn’t make sense since the technology you would use has turned into hive-minded killers. I don’t think I would have added anything to the settings, and the limited range helped the film in that aspect.

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Characters

While some parts were a little cringe, for the most part, the actors played their parts well. I liked Eli and Danny’s friendship, though it was a little sad that it deteriorated once at the party just because Danny was getting a little more attention. I also liked the interactions between Eli and Laura because they went from a stilted friendship to a couple after they realized certain aspects of each other.

Laura’s character was especially interesting because she is seen as this popular girl who looks for the easy grade but actually never asks to be the center of attention and truly enjoys working with computers and hacking. The other two characters who stood out to me were CJ and Ash, who made up the core four trying to infiltrate the high school. They both had differing backgrounds, from rap to hip hop, but connected over shared smokes and spitting phrases. It was kinda cool to see two people from different backgrounds coming together in a tragedy.

Lastly, Fred Durst. I am not a Limp Bizkit fan at all, and I wasn’t even sure who it was until later in the film. It makes sense because the band was more popular in the 90s, but the addition of him coming from a concert and helping the kids was just a little too weird and outlandish. Granted, the whole film was, but I just didn’t really get this guy coming in and distracting the robots with his music, pulling the spotlight away from the kids, who had the thumb drive to destroy the robots.

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Where will Y2K be streaming?

While an official date has not been released for Y2K, the film is projected to stream on Max, due to the streaming service’s partnership with Warner Bros. and propensity to show A24 films. For its digital streaming via premium video on demand date, the film is expected to arrive on December 24th, with Amazon Prime Video already showing the horror comedy for preorder.

Prominent Actors in Y2K

While the cast may not be star-studded, you might have recognized a few from other films and TV series. Check out some of the leading players in Y2K below and some of their more recognizable roles.

• Rachel Zegler (Laura) – The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, West Side Story
• Kyle Mooney (Garrett) – Spree, Zoolander 2, Brigsby Bear
• Jaeden Martell (Eli) – It, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, Defending Jacob
• Julian Dennison (Danny) – Uproar, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Deadpool 2
• Lachlan Watson (Ash) – Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Only the Good Survive, Chucky
• Daniel Zolghadri (CJ) – Alex Strangelove, Funny Pages, Ready Player One

Final Thoughts

Overall, the film wasn’t terrible, but I wouldn’t go see it a second time. There was some promise with the idea of the movie, but some of the pieces just fell flat. Horror comedy is a hard genre to master, because of the conflicting emotions and trying to manage that balance. I never felt super terrified or holding my stomach in laughter, so it didn’t really fulfill either genre. If you like fluffy horror movies that are nostalgic, use lots of swear words, and even nudity, try watching Y2K.