‘Y2K’ Continues a Disappointing Horror-Comedy Trend

In Y2K, a group of teenagers ring in the year 2000 with a New Year’s Eve party. However, their plans change when the night ushers in a robot apocalypse, forcing the teenagers to work together to survive the human-slaying technology surrounding them. The film, which is distributed by A24, stars breakout actors including Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison, and The Kid Laroi, as well as Alicia Silverstone.

As fun as the film sounds, it’s also alarming from an industry perspective. Y2K blends horror and comedy, which is a genre mix audiences have been seeing far too often recently. The two genres feel like they should work well together, but with each new movie, the blend becomes a little bit more boring. Y2K is indicative of a need to slow down with horror-comedies before audiences become disinterested entirely.

Y2K Phones in Its Horror-Comedy

As critics have been reviewing Y2K, many have pointed out that the film combines horror and comedy half-heartedly. On Rotten Tomatoes, where the film holds a rotten score of 50%, the summary reads, “Y2K earns points for ambition and sheer audacity, even if it struggles to keep the laughs coming while maintaining a messy tonal blend.” In our review, critic Will Sayre writes that “dark humor and R-rated violence become few and far between as the story progresses.”

The film’s struggle to land its comedic and terrifying moments can partially be attributed to the film’s creator. Kyle Mooney, who’s known for his work on Saturday Night Live, wrote and directed Y2K. During his nine-year tenure on the long-running series, Mooney became known for creating outlandish sketches which were often cut for time. Y2K is his first time directing a feature film, which helps explain some of the movie’s struggles to find its footing.

It doesn’t help that technology is not a new concept for comedy or horror. Recent films like The Mitchells vs. The Machines have poked fun at humanity’s reliance on technology, while films like M3GAN have depicted the terrifying nature of technology turning evil. Doing a take on this concept that’s both horror and comedy just isn’t that interesting, especially with the number of horror-comedies coming out. Films from the past few years that are nothing more than “fine” have soured the genre, such as Cocaine Bear, Renfield, and The Menu. Not just anyone can combine comedy and horror in a way that’s new and good.

Horror and Comedy Are Surprisingly Similar but Hard to Combine

Horror and comedy share many similarities. The two genres have very different impacts on the audience, but they include similar actions and concepts. Many comedians like Jordan Peele and Bill Hader have even found success working on horror projects in recent years, including Tim Heidecker who plays Howard in Y2K.

The main difference between horror and comedy is delivery. When the Three Stooges hit each other with shovels, hammers, and other tools, it’s funny because the characters recover easily, and the sound effects remind the audience that the scene is played for laughs. However, in a horror movie, if the antagonist were to hit a character with a tool, it would be scary because the audience knows that character is in danger. Similarly, when Itchy and Scratchy hurt each other with over-the-top violence in The Simpsons, it’s funny because it’s a cartoon, but if someone did that in live-action, it would certainly frighten viewers.

With horror and comedy taking similar actions and accomplishing different goals with them, it’s easy to see why movies struggle as horror-comedies. Making some scenes comedic and some scenes horrific can shift a film’s tone too much, and adding jokes to a terrifying scene can undo its impact on viewers. When the two genres are combined properly, it can have a satisfying effect on the viewers, putting them at ease before scaring them again.

A Few Horror-Comedies Have Soared Above the Rest

Although horror and comedy are hard to mix, there are a few movies that have mixed them well. Gremlins, Evil Dead II, The Cabin in the Woods, and Scream are just a few examples of movies that can scare audiences while still making them laugh. Each of these has a nice blend of comedic and horrifying moments that keep the films feeling fresh.

Gremlins and Evil Dead II embrace their exaggerated features of horror, turning the films into something akin to a live-action cartoon. Gremlins uses puppetry to bring reckless monsters to life as they terrorize the city in ways like making a woman’s motorized chair go so fast that she flies out the window. Evil Dead II shows a man descending into madness in a haunted cabin, as he tries to fight possessed items like his own severed hand.

The Cabin in the Woods and Scream play parts like an actual horror movie while often breaking the fourth wall. Scream parodies horror movies with its fictional movie series Stab and characters repeatedly calling out tropes as they happen. The Cabin in the Woods plays out like a typical horror movie, but two men watching the film’s events from a control room share their commentary.

Y2K‘s premise is more like an extended sketch, which is funny for a little bit but can’t quite hold itself up for more than a few minutes. It’s not unbearable, but it’s also not as original and exciting as other films. Those brave enough for the film’s horror and comedy mixture can find Y2K in theaters now.