Interviews
‘Y2K’ Director Kyle Mooney Talks Practical Effects and Keeping Audiences on Their Toes [Interviews]
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 entailed people prepping for an actual apocalypse. Except, once the clock struck midnight, nothing happened. The computers adjusted just fine, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the world moved on in a blink.
Y2K director/co-writer Kyle Mooney and co-writer Evan Winter imagine what could’ve happened had the Y2K bug actually triggered catastrophe, marrying an apocalyptic horror movie with a raucously entertaining teen comedy.
Mooney, a millennial making his directorial feature debut with Y2K, remembers that specific point in time well. He recalls, “I mean, it was just such a disappointment. I don’t want to say massive disappointment because, in some way, the next day, I probably didn’t even think about it at all. You know what I mean? But it was something that I held on to for the rest of my life, just that it was so odd that we were told something wild was going to happen, and truly nothing did.”
“I don’t know if I ever, when talking about it or thinking about it, give credit that there probably was work being done by people to make sure that whatever the cash registers at the supermarket were up-to-date or whatever computers needed to be,” Mooney continues. “But yeah, I think it’s an idea that just thinking about Y2K was always there and how bizarre it was. Then, on New Year’s Day 2019, I had the soft idea of what would happen if teenagers went to a party in ’99 and Y2K actually happened. I pitched it to my friend, Evan.”
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.
Interviews
George A. Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead’ Gets New Life After Search for Long-Lost Film Elements
“I was told that this couldn’t be found by some people that I worked with, and that just set a fire in me,” Scream Factory producer Jeff Roland says of the newly restored Day of the Dead in 4K from the seemingly long-lost original interpositive.
The four-disc release, loaded with special features and new interviews in addition to the restoration, arrives almost exactly three years after Roland began his long pursuit of the missing elements that he was warned were lost to time.
It’s a fitting journey for Day of the Dead, the third film in horror master George A. Romero‘s zombie series, considering the film’s long road to reappraisal after its initial failure at the box office in 1985. A huge departure from the popular Dawn of the Dead, the third film set its battle for humanity’s survival in an underground bunker, waged between a small group of scientists and ruthless soldiers.
It was underground where Roland began his pursuit of the missing interpositive elements, starting with the old-fashioned paper trail in Scream Factory’s basement, sorting through records from their 2013 Blu-ray release.
Scream Factory’s Years-Long Quest to Restore a Horror Classic
“So, there I was, going through boxes and boxes and boxes, trying to find this one specific invoice for a delivery company amongst thousands of pieces of paper,” Roland tells Bloody Disgusting. “That was the start. I was able to figure out the delivery service, and from there, it just went into a whirlwind of… drama? Yeah, there was some drama in there at one point; I thought it had been stolen by someone.”
Roland notes of his Indiana Jones-like journey, “the short and sweet of it is, it took forever, I was trying to find leads. Anything. I was seeing ridiculous things online, you know, like it was in a diamond mine in South Africa. I even followed up on that. I thought it would be hilarious if it were actually being kept in the Wampum mine. So I called them, and this poor woman who answered the phone sounded like she got this call every other day.”
Roland notes, “The records, for film vaults and such, aren’t the greatest. I’ll just say that. So, I think that’s, over time, that’s something that we definitely need to improve upon in this business.”
John Harrison Reflects on Day of the Dead‘s Surprising Legacy and Original Vision
While now considered another Romero zombie classic, critics and audiences rejected Day of the Dead at first, especially the Caribbean-style theme music from composer and first assistant director John Harrison.
Few are as surprised by the massive shift in the film’s reception as Harrison. The filmmaker and longtime Romero collaborator reflects, “Now, if you had asked any of us, and George included, that, ‘hey man, you know, in 45 years, this movie’s gonna be considered like a cinema classic.’ We all probably would have said, ‘Oh, we’re making a movie, man. We’re just having fun making a movie, and God, can you believe it, that people are paying us to do this?’ I don’t want to minimize it. I don’t want to say that we were just goofing around.”
Harrison continues, “All of us were really serious about our craft and about what we were trying to do. But I don’t think that any of us, maybe George, hopefully, had some feeling that his films would last for a while. I was a kid, you know? I just wanted to have fun, make movies, and be part of that whole scene. So, it was really disappointing when Day came out, because it was a bomb. I mean, let’s be truthful about it. It was a bomb. And people hated the score. So, 40-some years later, it’s become, for some people, the apogee of that first dead trilogy. The best of the three in its own way.”
Harrison also points out that Romero’s Land of the Dead would later face a similar reception and reappraisal, which was all the more fascinating considering early budget cuts caused Romero to drastically scale back Day of the Dead‘s story. A lot of what was excised was later revisited in Land of the Dead. “That was actually part of the original Day of the Dead concept,” Harrison explains of the 2005 film.
“Because of budget and schedule and so forth and so on, and ratings,” he tells BD. “George couldn’t do it, and that’s why we ended up with the more condensed version of Day of the Dead, which everybody now knows and loves. In a way, I’m kind of glad, because it has a real identity being trapped in those caves, and the end of the world, the two sides of society. Going at it, headbutting, to try and survive. But the whole Fiddler’s Green idea and all of that stuff that ended up in Land of the Dead was part of the original Day.”
George Romero Predicted Social Media and Modern Culture
Suzanne Romero, founder & president of the George A. Romero Foundation and the late filmmaker’s wife, breaks down the film’s trajectory even further. “The original Day of the Dead script, I think, at one point, it was written for a $12 million budget, and it was basically cut in half. And it’s a great script. But that’s what happens with filmmakers, and you gotta make do.”
She continues, “But I really think that this film is really for the fans and people who love physical media. And in terms of the foundation, well, anytime George Romero is mentioned is good, because what we are doing is to provide a healthy legacy. We’re uplifting his legacy, we’re supporting the archive, and we’re also supporting the Horror Study Center. So, all of these three things are what the Foundation is striving to do. As far as I’m concerned, the more we say George Romero’s name, the better it is.”
The mention of Land of the Dead brings up one recurring theme of Romero’s work: the filmmaker’s ability to keep his pulse so thoroughly on the current social climate in a way that feels prescient.
Roland agrees, “I think one of the most amazing things that doesn’t get talked about enough is in 2007, he came out with Diary of the Dead. That pretty much predicted YouTube culture. I mean, we’re going through it right now, the exact things that were happening in Diary of the Dead. It’s incredible.”
“Well, that was intentional,” Harrison says, “because I was part of that and worked with Peter [Grunwald] and George on developing that whole script and production. And that was definitely intentional. There was nothing accidental or, ‘Great timing, guys!’ It was not like that at all. It was intentional.”
Suzanne Romero agrees, “[George] was very wary of social media, but very wary of the internet. He was always very suspicious and thought that we ought to beware; we ought to be walking very carefully into this space.“
“Which we haven’t done, of course,” Harrison adds.
“No, of course not,” Romero responds. “And AI. I mean, he would be writing about AI right now and thinking, danger! What the fuck are you doing, people? But not only that, but he also did it in a layman’s way. You know, he really brought it to very familiar language, and people that spoke to each other, it was in a very natural way, and it was the way he developed characters. The way he evolved with how his women were more powerful, because he kind of regretted that in Night of the Living Dead, [Barbra] was weak. He always thought the women ought to be much stronger, and I think it started with Season of the Witch.”
Everyone Wanted to Be a Zombie in a Romero Movie
George A. Romero’s legacy certainly looms large over Scream Factory’s impressive new release, offering a comprehensive look at Day of the Dead through a dizzying number of new audio commentaries, featurettes, and interviews detailing everything from the “mine fever” that spread among the cast and crew to Ernest Dickerson‘s high-pressure day on set running the second unit camera.
That’s also reflected in Romero’s zombies themselves, dating back to 1968’s Night of the Living Dead.
“In Pittsburgh, it was a badge of honor to be a zombie in a George Romero movie,” Harrison recounts. “Everybody from the Dean of Students at Carnegie Mellon to the presidents of corporations. I had a story that came out of Dawn. I was pitching a commercial for my own little company, and I’d done a bit for George as ‘Screwdriver Zombie’ on Dawn. I didn’t get cleaned up enough, and I went to this meeting at the first thing in the morning. The vice president of this bank is looking at me, going, ‘Is there something wrong with you?’ I said, ‘No, no, that’s what I know? I’m fine.’ He said, ‘Well, you’re bleeding out of your ear.’ Okay, so then I had to tell them the whole story. And he listened to it, and I thought, well, this is gonna be ridiculous. I’m coming in talking about being a zombie in a movie, and I want to sell him this, like, multi-thousand-dollar commercial that the bank is gonna pay for. He listened very carefully to me, and he said, ‘Well, listen, we’ll talk about the commercial, but do you think I could be a zombie in one?”
That hasn’t changed in the present, either.
Suzanne Romero confirms, “We’re producing George’s film, Twilight of the Dead, and we get requests, ‘Can I be a zombie in this film?’ So, even today, people are very interested, and yet it’s terrible. I mean, it’s hours and hours of makeup.”
Scream Factory’s Day of the Dead four-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray Collector’s Edition releases on June 16.
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